


Safe and Sound

by SweeTarts151



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, F/F, Omega Verse, Soulmate AU, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-22
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-04-20 21:31:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 50,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4802915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweeTarts151/pseuds/SweeTarts151
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some one shots and others random story ideas with our favorite characters and(or) pairings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Werewolves Au: (Slight/Pre Anya/Clarke)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hundred were mostly werewolves, born and given suppressants once they broke the law, after all a drugged wolf is more docile. They send them to Earth without supplies because wolves were meant to survive and these pups were expendable. The Arc had to find a way to save the humans and wolves of their large community. Their pack.

They land on Earth with fire beneath their feet and no hum in their ears. They land with blood full of wolfs-bane and bodies exhausted but alive. They land on Earth unprepared for the beauty of it and they fall to their knees in awe. They build and protect as a day turns into a week and Mount Weather is too far away, danger lurking in the shadows as they prepare for a bump in the night. Their bodies are weak from the poison in their blood and soon it begins to thin, deplete and the smell of Earth hits them. Tangy, sweet and it smells like  _home_  should. Sweat clinging to their skin and happiness in the air. They adjust to being on Earth and not the cool metal of the Arc where they pumped you full of wolfs-bane every month. Bellamy's eyes flash red when the last drop of poison leaves his system and they are free. Golden eyes bright, blue eyes wondrous and red a beacon of hope in the night.

There are skirmishes, Murphy's bright gold eyes sharp as he shoves another back before Bellamy is growling with bared teeth and too bright eyes. They smell danger in the air and Clarke sniffs, searching for Pascal and Tracy before the smell of sulfur tears apart her nose. Finn and Wells left long ago to take more seaweed back to boil for Jasper as she searched for the lost two. Her feet tear her across the forest floor and her gold eyes are bright as she howls a warning to the others.  It echos off the trees and Bellamy hears it, shoving his people into hiding before he is running through the forest, after his wolves who had been hunting. Atom's smell is over ridden by the sulfur and Miller's and Francis drop off somewhere down the hill before he is on Charlotte's trail and shoving her into a cave. Pain bursts all over him as he feels a pack mate hurting and he hugs Charlotte to his chest, she can't feel the pain but he can feel her fear.

Clarke stumbles upon them, following the scent of pain before she falls to her knees beside Atom, his eyes are glowing gold and he trembles. She can hear his lungs threatening to collapse and knows there is a poison made for wolves in it before she is slipping a knife into her hand and is petting his hair from his face. "Everything will be okay, I promise." Atom nods weakly, he trusts her to fix it and Clarke rests her hand on his cheek, veins turning black and thick traveling up her arm as she pulls the pain from him. Her chest stutters and threatens to cave as her eyes water yet she continues to take the pain and Atom relaxes, sighing softly in relief before Clarke is pressing the knife into his throat, her eyes are gold and his blood coats her claws as slowly the black veins recede when the last breath leaves the boy's body and golden eyes flood blue as a tear falls from her now cobalt eyes. For Atom may have been guilty on the Arc, he was still an innocent and she had killed him. Bellamy stares at her in wonder and Charlotte watches them. Octavia's eyes are bright gold as she screams at Bellamy and his own don't even flash as this pack of misfit wolves watch them. Clarke with her pained blue eyes that have yet to recede and Bellamy's dark broken brown. Then Wells is dead and they ache as they find him. Blaming the grounders before finding a knife. It's Murphy's and Clarke is on him, growling and shoving before blaming and then his eyes flash gold and she shakes her head, ripping him from another hands and pressing him into a tent. Bellamy growls at the crowd gunning for Murphy's head. Red eyes bright before they calm. "Yellow, not blue." Clarke mumbles, staring at Murphy's now bloodied face as it slowly heals. 

He spits blood on the ground of the tent as Bellamy walks in. "No shit Clarke, I didn't kill him."

"Then who did?" Her eyes are broken and filled with tears at the loss of her best friend.

"Blue eyed beta, you'd be the first suspect." Murphy spits out, Bellamy lunges forward but Clarke shoves him back with bright glowing blue eyes, Murphy spoke the truth. Someone in their camp killed Wells and bore cobalt blue eyes like her own. With disbelief in their veins Charlotte's eyes flash blue of a killer of innocence and Clarke shakes her head, they were gold yesterday. Gold and dancing in terror of her nightmares. Gold and laughing at a joke not this blue of Wells' murderer. Charlotte runs from camp, Murphy yelling that they were about to punish him why not the girl. Bellamy shoves him back and tells Miller to keep him in camp. The other alpha's eyes flash red and Murphy glares at them. They stumble upon her on a cliff and she stares at them with broken blue eyes. "I killed him. He died because of me. I'm a murderer. My eyes are blue." Her words crack and Clarke steps closer, trembling because this was a little girl crying. Her pack mate sobbing in front of her. She killed Wells but she was hurting and so very young.

"Charlotte, come here. Step away from the cliff please. You're not the only one with blue eyes." Clarke's voice shakes and Bellamy trembles as the young girl takes a step closer to the edge.

"I can't. My parents and Jaha haunted my dreams." The girl rubs at her eyes that spill in tears. The blue glowing in the darkness as Bellamy and Clarke own are bright in the night. "I see Wells in my nightmares now. Begging me not to do it. I felt his fear. His pain."

"Charlotte." Clarke speaks in a soft manner, hoping to calm the girl but the young wolf shakes her head, spinning and jumping form the cliff. "CHARLOTTE! NO!" Clarke's voice rips the night and she and Bellamy stumble to the edge of the cliff, they both feel the sharp pain of her death, like a phantom limb and Bellamy has tears spilling over red eyes.

The night is still full of chaos. Raven's bright gold eyes boring into Clarke's when the girl lands and Bellamy's red flashing as the mechanic threatened everything he had fought ti hide and protect. "Your eyes wouldn't be blue even if you weren't an alpha dipshit, Jaha's still alive." And Clarke's shoulders tense but Bellamy's relax before they realize the radio is gone. "But they will be if we don't find my damn radio!" And they scourer the river but the result is the same, even with flares to the Arc three hundred and twenty people are floated and Bellamy wants his red eyes gone so he can finally show his guilt through the eyes of a murderer.

It takes a second for him o realize his sister is gone through his guilt before he is shoving his way through the crowd and out the gate, others on his heels. They're attacked, John falling behind and thumping into the ground. Dead. Diggs coughing up blood and dead before he can even scream. Roma dead, stuck to a tree, gold eyes fading as her chest stills. Every death aches, these one hundred delinquents are Bellamy's  _pack_ and everything hurts. Aches.

Lincoln's eyes are a soft gold as he is tortured and Finn lays dying below them with dull golden eyes until Octavia, with her own blinding bright golden eyes, is slicing into her arm and everything isn't alright but it's okay. It's salvageable and then they're meeting with Lincoln's leader who greets Clarke with bright red eyes. Clarke's own flash a brilliant blue and the alpha tilts her head. "You walk like an alpha but you carry the eyes of a killer of innocence. It is suitable for the one to destroy an entire village."

Clarke's muscles tense and her lips itch to pull back in a snarl. "We did no such thing!"

 

Red glare into her own and the alpha pulls back her lips in a snarl, teeth sharp and gleaming. "You shot rockets from the sky and the burned a village to ash, I think you are responsible."

 

"We just want peace, we meant no harm." Her blue eyes stay bright but desperate. "The Arc sent us to Earth with poison in our blood and danger all around us. We are just learning to survive. We just want to _live."_

 

Anya scoffs, muscle loosening like Clarke isn't a threat to her and Clarke wants to shove her back, dig her claws into her hip and growl. Howl until this alpha bows down before her rage. "You want peace yet you ask like a child. A beta leading a pack of weak children. Leaders do not snivel and beg, they demand."

 

Clarke teeth finally flash into a snarl as she fights to control her wolf around this hotheaded alpha. "I am trying to be polite but you are testing my patience."

 

"What would you bring to a peace beta, your ability to kill innocent people?" She steps closer, threat bleeding off of her in waves and Bellamy stiffens, his eyes flashing red in anger from his position hidden below them. "Burn my villages to the ground?"

 

Clarke squares her shoulder,bright blue glaring into sharp red as she bleeds challenge at this alpha. "We have guns laced in wolfsbane, not the treatable kind either." Her eyes hold promise and Bellamy and Raven smirk, their Princess was schooling this Grounder Princess. "We have a beta who can create bombs that make those from a hundred years look like child's play. We just want peace."

 

Anya's jaw is tight in anger and challenge. This beta who walked like an alpha was determined and smart. Like she shouldn't cower below Anya's glare. "Then you will ride with me to my Commander's tent, Beta who thinks she is an alpha."

 

Clare reins in her barred teeth and sharpening claws, being a beta didn't mean she couldn't lead. Didn't mean her pack didn't respect her leading. "I will bring my committee."

 

"You are allowed a second and your emissary." Anya glares at this girl, wondering if she even knew the meaning of the word emissary. If she knew the protection they had on enemy grounds. Emissary's were not to be touched.

 

Clarke clenches her jaw close to baring her teeth in a show of defiance. "I will bring my emissary, my co leader and our second in command."

 

Anya stiffens but nods her head and Clarke shifts on her feet, eyeing Octavia and Lincoln. She needed Raven there, Raven who could create weapons and explain these things but Octavia was partially assimilated into grounder culture through Lincoln. Anya rolls her eyes, red flashing. "The beta with Lincoln may come with him but that is all."

* * *

They arrive to the meeting place, Bellamy beside Clarke, Raven tinkering with wires in her hands and Monty trembling behind them, his eyes too impossibly human. Miller salutes them, bowing his head in submission before heading back to the drop-ship to do damage control. And the alpha with an almost god complex greets Clarke with a sharp nod before leading them to their mounts. Lincoln helps Octavia onto a horse and Bellamy's claws sharpen, digging into his fist as Raven rolls her eyes, throwing herself up on a horse and eyes the two leaders with narrowed eyes. Bellamy rolls his eyes before ambling up behind Raven, the mechanic flicks his greedy hands away from the reins and takes control of the lumbering beast with a smirk. Clarke slips onto her own horse and reaches her hand down for Monty, he grips it tightly before they are finally moving, his rail thin arms wrapped around her.

The ride is not what they expect, beta's ride beside them, Anya the only alpha and Clarke thinks to the other three alpha in their camp, Miller, Monroe and Harper. The three listen to Bellamy without thought and the blonde watches as this alpha over only beta's leads her to an unknown location. The gate is vast and large as it greets them and their guns are stripped from their bodies. Raven's tools and knives tossed into a box carelessly as the beta growls low in her throat. They are marched into a war room and at the end of the tent, at the head of the table, rest an alpha with power radiating off off her. None of her people flinch at the power, Bellamy, too used to Jaha's overbearing presence, doesn't even shift his eyes red. They had dealt with many overbearing alpha's in their lifetime. "So you are the leader of these sky wolves?"

Clarke steps closer and Bellamy follows her, Anya almost shoves the alpha back but retrains herself. "Bellamy and I are both leaders of the Hundred."

She feels the presence of an alpha but also that of three beta's and an emissary that are not her own. "So you are the alpha's second. His beta."

Clarke almost bears her teeth but let her eyes flash blue as Bellamy's remain an ever watching brown. "We lead together."

Lexa eyes them, the sharp cobalt blue of one who killed innocence. "You do walk like an alpha, beta."

Bellamy bears his teeth at that because they said the word beta like it was less. Like a beta couldn't lead. "Clarke is an alpha in her soul not her eyes. Our people listen to her."

"So you are the red eyed puppet she controls." Lexa's lips twist into a cruel smirk, almost like she is baiting the two.

Raven snorts at that before Bellamy can growl low in his chest. "Almighty alpha is pulling your strings and you're both falling into it." Bright gold eyes shoot to stare at Lexa and Raven has her own smirk on her face, teeth sharp behind her lips. "Beside alpha lady, I don't think Clarke could control Bellamy if she wanted, and vice-versa. Those two butt head too much as it is."

Lexa stands, stepping closer and closer to Raven. The beta who didn't bow her head in submission, simply stood taller as the two leaders behind her stiffened, claws digging into their palms. "So you are the beta who can bring bombs and fire."

Raven chin is tilting high as she flashes her teeth. "The one and only, try not to forget it." Gold eyes flash threateningly and red blaze to match.

The Commander turns around to these beta's who don't cower and an alpha who leads without fear. "So you wish for peace yet your second threatens me. Which is it?"

Bellamy bites his tongue, head too hot with the threat to his pack mates. These alphas were nothing like the overbearing and pressing ones of the arc. They were wilder. More threatening. Clarke steps closer, dipping her chin slightly to garner attention. "We want peace but we are not afraid of war. "

Lexa tilts her head to the side, twirling a knife in her hands. "You have nothing to offer us."

"I am a healer, I have knowledge."

The alpha waves her hand dismissively, red eyes still glowing with the blue of Clarke's and red of Bellamy's before fading to a soft almost green. "That is disposable here, Lincoln told us of your problems. The sky is vastly different than the ground."

"Then what do you propose Commander?" Bellamy's voice is tight as his shoulders remain stiff.

Lexa eyes Monty as he stands there, shoulders straight. "You say there are more of you coming?" Clarke nods her head sharply. "Then we will make peace before they land." Red eyes flash. "But don't be fooled, if you decide to attack us when they land the consequences will be severe."

Clarke licks her lips because this was their last hope at survival. "How do we seal the peace treaty?"

"The Clan leaders offer their blood and trade. Since you have no trade you will offer your blood and then your pack with join one of my general's packs." The Commander's eyes flicker to the red eyed generals behind her. Anya and her feathered hair and scowling face. A woman with short black hair, dark skin and facial scarring. Them a man with a sneer on his face and sharp teeth pulled back into a snarl. "Choose wisely." Her eyes flicker to Lincoln, Indra's nephew and Anya's healer, his hand is loose around a beta with soft green eyes. Bellamy eyes the man standing beside Anya and the dark skinned woman, his spine stiffening and Clarke nods her head in agreement. Not him. Never him.

Monty watches them before he steps close to Clarke and Bellamy, his hands pressing into their forearm, both turn to look at him and he bites his lip, dipping his head and Clarke's face twists into a scowl but she nods and Bellamy laughs as Raven huffs out a teasing groan. "We have to deal with two princesses now?" There is amusement in the mechanic's voice and Bellamy just shake his head as the decision is made.


	2. Daemon AU: The Arc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daemon AU: On The Arc/ Clarke's story. This may possibly be continued later on to tell the story of the hundred on the ground with their daemons.

Clarke races down the halls, her daemon on her heels and Wells laughing in front of her, his own daemon racing ahead of them. "Get back here Wells!" Clarke screams out, laughing all the while as they run through the metal halls. She bumps into his back as they stumble to a stop in front of one another. Thelonious smiles at his son and Clarke Griffin, his Capuchin stare at the children with curious eyes as Wells daemon lands on the boys shoulder and the small cat following after them shifts to a ferret, climbing up Clarke and resting on her shoulder. "You two know better than to run down the halls. Where were you off to?"

Wells dips his head in apology. "Sorry father." He looks up with a short smile. "We were off to play in the ring, Eulalia likes to stretch her wings." The small parrot chirps at Thelonious before shifting to a hawk and clicking her beak testily. 

Thelonious eyes the four of them, dipping his head in agreement before sighing lowly, hand coming to the shoulder his son's daemon isn't resting on. "Don't be too long, and do not allow anyone close to her Wells, you know the consequences if another touches your daemon." His fingers squeeze gently before he releases his hold.

Wells nods his head quickly, grabbing at Clarke's wrist and tugging gently. "They go to the sky box, we won't forget. Come on Clarke." Blue eyes take in the man before her because her dad stroked her mom's daemon all the time, rubbing at the soft feathers before her kissed Abby gently, right before he went to work. The blonde follows after Wells, leaving his dad behind because they weren't meant to question the adults.

"It's because your parents are married right?" Lae mumbles into her ear, tiny teeth biting into the skin on her chin when she jostles him too much. She winces, trying to scowl at him as she shrugs. "It must feel weird to touch someone else's daemon." His tiny voice is a low grumble.

Clarke shrugs her shoulders again, earning a sharp dig of claws into her shoulder. "Wells has bumped into you plenty of times."

"But he never pets me, not like you do." The ferrets snuggles close to Clarke's throat, cool nose pressing into her pulse point.

"Do you want him too?" Clarke tries to turn her eyes to her daemon, tries to look into his soft black eyes. 

"I didn't say that." Lae huffs, bumping his head into her chin in annoyance. "I was just curious."

"You're always curious, we'll get in trouble on day."

* * *

 As Clarke grows older Lae grows bigger, shifting into larger and larger shapes. Abby stares at him in exasperation because right now he was shifted into the shape of a polar bear, growling low in his throat at the guard looming outside the door. "Laertes." He paces the floor because Clarke was in there taking her test without his help. Because they didn't want him to give her the answers. Because they were _separated_ right now and he didn't like it. He turns to glare at Abby and her daemon screeches at him and he shifts to a cowering puppy under his other half's mother's daemon's sharp eyes.  Abby sighs low in her throat, stroking the falcon's head. "Calm down. Clarke will be fine. She is smart."

"Why must they separate us then." Lae grumbles, Abby barely able to make out his words. "She is smarter with me."

"Because if you were to take the shape of a polar bear how would you fit into the operating room? Clarke wants to be a doctor, you both must get used to a few feet separating you." Abby's voice is soft and soothing.

He huffs, shifting into a badger and glower at the door in a persistent anger. "I  can stay small if Clarke needs."

"You have no control over that, you would be uncomfortable. You will find your shape sooner or later." Galian chirps the answer form Abby's shoulder as Abby watches the door like her daughter would come out of it soon. 

The badger huffs indignantly. "Eulalia chose her shape already."

"Wells has his own mind about himself, leave them be." Galian clicks back to him and the badger grumbles, laying his head on his paws because both Abby and Galian had talked to him like he was a whimpering cub.

* * *

 "Lia stop." Clarke's voice is annoyed and slightly teasing as the owl sits perched on Wells shoulder, she hoots in playful confusion.

Wells has a slight grin on his face as he moves his piece, dark eyes looking up to tease Clarke. "What's she doing?"

Clarke rolls her eyes, lips threatening to pull into a grin. "You know what shes doing wells. She's cheating."

"How is she cheating." Wells eyes dance with laughter as his owl hoots with her own laughter.

Clarke scowls at him because she used to almost beat Wells when Lia played with Lae but now the owl rested on his shoulder, helping and cheating. "She's calculating my moves."

Wells moves another piece with a small flick of his wrist, pulling Clarke's piece from the board. "True but she is part of me so _we_ are beating you. It is not my fault Laertes hates chess."

Clarke huffs low in her throat, turning her eyes to her daemon laying at her feet, staring down another daemon from across the room. "He doesn't hate it."

Wells laughs, lips pulling into a wide grin as his eyes dance. "Just finds it abysmal."

Clarke glares at him, rolling her eyes as she defend her daemon. "Uninteresting."

"Yet you remain so good at it." They both laugh and around them the room is full of other people and their daemons. Some large and some small. The largest daemon on the Arc so far was an elk and a horse. Almost too large for the hallways as they followed behind their other half. Clarke eyes the birds flying around the room and the snakes slithering up the shoulders of their human. There wasn't much room but there was enough for them to be slightly packed but comfortable.

"We have class in thirty minutes Clarke, stop stalling." Wells voice pulls her back tot he chess game, Lia staring at her with intelligent teasing eyes.

Clarke rolls her eyes as she moves her rook to take his knight. "What if I don't want to go to class?"

 He grins widely, sliding his pawn to take her rook and she scowls at him because how could she not see that coming. She had to be off on her game. "You mean you don't want to be in the room with the rest of us normal people."

 Clarke rolls her eyes because they were both advanced in their learning. "You aren't normal Wells."

"I have classes in botany and politics. You're taking advanced biology and human anatomy." He leans forward with a wide conspiratorial grin. "Tell me the truth, you hate being in history with the rest of us."

She grins back at him, sliding her knight across his board and taking his bishop. "Oh hush Wells."

* * *

 Laertes stands beside her fur sleek and soft grey as he hops to the others, tiny feet propelling him to Jake as Clarke speaks, his large ears are perked high on his head. "I can help you. We can help you." Jake opens his mouth to tell her no when the door bursts open and daemons and guards are flooding the room. "I'll tell them!" Clarke voice is loud and a guard grabs her, tightening his hold as Lae shifts from rabbit to panther growling ferociously as Jake and Lesidea are pulled from the room.

"Clarke no!" Jake yells after her, struggling to get to his daughter. Lesidea scratches at anyone, trying and failing to get to Jake. "Don't do it!"

Suddenly he is gone and Clarke is being detained, twin German Shepards growling at her now black panther, his own lips curl into a snarl. "They will float him." LEa's voice is pained and broken.

"I know." Clarke's voice breaks and one of the guards glare at her.

"Be quiet." He stands taller, hand on his electric baton. "Separate from you daemon."

"No, he's my daemon, you can't make m-" Clarke voice is confused and broken before the man is grabbing the girl by her arm and pushing her out into another room, Laertes is guarded by the two dogs growling and lunging, throwing harsh swipes at them and Clarke's heart aches because she can't even talk to Lae for comfort.

They let her go once they sweep the apartment, telling her her father is set to float. She races down the hall, Lae on her heels, thick muscles pushing him closer and closer to their family when they see him. Clarke throws herself at him and Lae stands the, eyes soft and broken as he stares at Lesidea, her almost cloudy fur is ruffled but she stares back with a small almost broken grin. The watch is pressed into Clarke's hand and then Jake stands there, fingers tangled into his daemon's thick fur and they press the button. Gold dust filling the air as it and Jake are sucked into the darkness. Clarke falls to her knees, sobbing. Laertes presses into her side, strong and solid and as broken as she is.

And when they take her to lock up Laertes growls at them, long teeth barred and claws ready before they are shoved into isolation. The room is small and the large cat bumps Clarke to the bed, laying down with her and rumbling gently in his chest. Clarke clutches to his fur because Laertes finally chose his true form and the pain of it being a feline like Lesidea hurt. Laertes settled into his true form today and all he could do was curl around his other half and offer the comfort of his steady heart.


	3. SOUL MATE PAIN AU: Raven/Clarke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She felt every little ache, knew every little scar and injury but never the story behind it. Feeling the pain is never the same as experiencing it first hand.

Clarke Griffin knew she would go far in life, knew i the moment she touched charcoal and the moment her feet touched a soccer ball. The doctor, the doctor thing came later. Later when she knew what a trouble maker her soul mate would be. Later when she needed something to focus on.

Clarke could run with the best of them, body checked by another player or tripping over her own two feet she had plenty of injures. But never as many as her soul mate. There were nights Clarke would jolt awake and tears would spring in her eyes because everything hurts. Her face felt like it was splitting open and her ribs throbbed. She cried out, curling in a ball and the lights to her room flickered on, her dad coming to cradle her in his arms as her mom ran a soothing hand against her forehead. "It hurts." Clarke chokes out, tears falling down her face and pain radiating everywhere. It kept coming and coming. 

 

She trembles in her parents arms and Jake and Abby watch one another with sad eyes because their baby was hurting at the age of  twelve and there was nothing she could do about it. Sure there had been moments where Clarke had screamed out in pain because of her soulmate's injuries but that was fleeting, a dull ache that disappeared soon after. This. This was all consuming and unstoppable. Clarke screams out again and clutches her stomach, sobbing because somewhere someplace her soulmate was _hurting_. Was crying out and Clarke wasn't there to help. "It'll pass baby. It'll pass." Jake's voice is soothing as he rocks her back and forth and Abby's eyes are pained because this, Clarke reaction, something was going wrong. This was no accident. This was a continual severe attack. Somewhere their daughter's soulmate might be dying and there was nothing to be done.

* * *

 When Clarke is fourteen she kisses Wells on a dare and he stares at her with heart felt eyes and she just smiles because he is _her best friend_. They sit around the party, laughing and talking until Clarke lets out a yelp, grabbing onto her hand at the intense pain. Wells looks up at her in worry and she flashes him a crooked grin. "Soulmate."

 

He nods stiffly because he had never felt the pain of a soulmate. The sharp surprising ache. "You think they'd be careful, I wouldn't want my soulmate to hurt. I'd be careful Clarke, not ignorant of your pain."

 

Clarke shakes her head, smiling at the dark skinned boy gently, her left hand twirling a pencil. "Its not like we can just stop getting injured. I broke my wrist a year ago, how do you think they felt." She shrugs smiling at him wryly. "Its just a thing."

 

"But why does it have to be a thing?" He stares at her with dark and intense eyes.

 

She shrugs again because everyone had tried and failed to explain the way of soulmates. "I dunno Wells, I didn't make the rules."

 

"But who did? Who decided that soul mates had to share their pain?" He stares at her like he is trying to get her to understand. To see what he sees. "Why would you want your soulmate to feel your pain?"

 

She shrugs, frowning because nothing ever makes sense at their age. "I don't know. Dad says its about understanding the pain not feeling it."

* * *

When Clarke is sixteen she watches her father die in front of her and her mother lets out a wail that shakes the room and collapses to the ground like the strings keeping her up had been cut. She screams because her heart is aching and everything hurts right now as she screams at the men in front of her. The cops come but they are too late. Her dad lays dead at her feet and her mother is trembling like everything keeping her grounded was gone. And Clarke, Clarke doesn't want this. She wants her dad back. She wants this aching in her chest gone. She wants to not have a soul mate because these next months to come are hard. They hurt and ache and her mom is broken. And Clarke doesn't want to be that tied to someone. Doesn't want to feel their death and be left knowing their last moments were painful. She doesn't want to be here. Doesn't want to hear her mom cry and she rocks herself to sleep because her dad no longer can. 

 

When Clarke is sixteen she watches blood spill across her hand and she wants to severe the soul connection because her soulmate can feel the slice in her arm and doesn't _know_ the reason why it aches. Clarke wants the soul bond gone so she ignores every ache. Every throb of pain and throws herself into being a doctor.

 

Soccer. Soccer hurt because her father would watch every game. Her father who would paint his face in her colors. In her numbers and scream as loud as he could. Her father who never missed a soccer game and now here she was, pressing her hands into a cadaver at the age of sixteen because it was the only way her mother could look at her and see  _Clarke_ and not Jake. It was the only time Abby could look into those blue eyes and not see her husband looking back at her with his own blue eyes. 

 

So they bounded over the brachiocephalic artery and pneumothorax and superficial cuts. They bonded over stitching wounds and blood. And the soccer ball lay forgotten in Clarke's closet, tucked into the back corner with her sketch book because just the sight of it brought memories that hurt and ached.

* * *

When Clarke is seventeen she meets Lexa, Wells is standing beside her moodily and Octavia is off dancing with one of Bellamy's friends while Bellamy himself is working three blocks down. Lexa stands with tense shoulder and broken eyes. Clarke, Clarke recognizes those eyes because her mother has them. She walks over to her and sweeps her eyes up and down the girl before twisting her lips sadly into an almost smile. Lexa swallows, nodding her head sharply and shifts to allow Clarke to stand next to her. Shoulders brushing they watch as Lexa's cousin, Lincoln, bumps into another patron of the club and drops his glass onto the table, slicing his hand open. They hear a yelp across the room and Octavia is clutching her right hand only to see Lincoln and they stare at one another. Miller forgotten as Octavia moves closer to Lincoln. They only have eyes for each other and Lexa smiles a bittersweet but happy smile as Octavia pinches her own arm and Lincoln jumps in shock and joy. Clarke shakes her head because as much as soulmates could love, they could hurt. She had seen the damage in her mother's eyes. Could see it in Lexa's. 

 

Two months later Clarke and Lexa are racing down the street, a neighbors angry dog on their heels and Clarke can't stop laughing because Lexa has an almost smile as she runs with breathless gasps before they are jumping over a fence and collapsing into a heap of giggling limbs. "Never again." Lexa's voice is amused yet resolute.

 

Clarke pants beside her, blue eyes alive and happy. "Do you think O got away?"

 

"Yes, the beast came after us." Lexa shake her head with a wry sarcastic grin.

 

Clarke thumps back against the fence, legs splaying out in front of her. "Last time we listen to one of O's crazy ideas."

 

"You agreed to it."

 

Clarke rolls her eyes but laughs and then her eyes furrow in shock. "Lexa, your arm!" 

 

Clarke hands pull back the long sleeve and blood drips down to her palm. Lexa just blinks, staring at the cut on her arm from the fence. She shrugs. "It's doesn't hurt."

 

Blue eyes furrow as Clarke applies pressure. "What?" 

 

Lexa's soft green eyes drop to her lap, broken and dull and pained. "When Costia." Her words catch and the girl swallow thickly. "Died, I lost the ability to feel physical pain." Eyes full of tear fly up to stare at Clarke. "I would give anything to feel pain. Anything because at least when I felt the pain I still had Costia. At least when I felt pain I knew my other half was still alive." Clarke pulls Lexa into a hug and they sit there for the rest of the night in some random person's yard because everything hurts yet doesn't.

* * *

When Clarke is eighteen she's accepted into a med school, one of the best on early admissions. With all her general educations out of the way due to summer college courses shes on her way up and can't seem to catch her breath because she hadn't felt the cut or bruising form of pain in a while and she pinches her arm, wincing at the sharp feeling. She still had feeling. She was fine. Everything was fine.

 

When Clarke is eighteen she works a rotation at the Emergency Room, cleaning but it is in a hospital all the same. She watches as a man drop to the floor and screams. Watches him clutch at his chest like it is falling apart and tears fill her eyes because here was another without their soulmate. Another to clutch at their empty chest and bleed from wounds they couldn't feel.

 

When Clarke is eighteen she gets a phone call. Wells is dead. Wells was in a wreck. Wells didn't make it. He died twenty-three minutes ago. Her best friend was gone and she drops to her knees and clutches her chest because it feels like it is cracking and falling. It feels like it will explode and the phone drops to the floor, shattering to pieces until Lexa is stooping down, her eyes understanding and sad as she helps Clarke stand. All around them sympathetic eyes watch the blonde, assuming she just lost her soulmate. And she did in a way. Wells was her best friend. Her shadow. He was hers as much as she was his and everything hurt because Wells was gone. Just like that he had been erased from her life like he didn't matter. He was gone and she hadn't felt a thing. Why did she feel the pain of a person she never met? Why couldn't she know the second her best friend died? Why couldn't soulmates be someone you choose? Who chose your better half when your best friend was your  _best_ friend?

* * *

When Clarke is nineteen she kisses Lexa. Lexa kisses back and they press their foreheads together. "You have a soulmate Clarke." Lexa's eyes are pained and she could love Clarke, is beginning to love Clarke, but this could never work.

 

Blue eyes are pleading and sad and broken and hopeful. "I could love you Lexa. I do love you."

 

"I don't know if you could be in love with me." Soft fingers brush blonde hair from Clarke's cheek and Lexa's eyes are pained. "You could love me but we both know you will never love me like you could your soulmate. You have a soulmate."

 

Clarke shakes her head because she didn't want that. Didn't want that forever pain. "I haven't met them. Whose to say I will. I don't want some destiny to predetermine my fate. I want to _make_ my own."

 

Lexa kisses her, desperately, hands weaving through blonde hair. "Loving your soulmate is like falling. It's scary and exhilarating but at the same time it is everything you need. It's safety. Its home." Lexa's voice cracks and Clarke fingers dig into the woman's forearms because Lexa is in pain. Lexa is hurting. "You will never love anyone as much as you will love your soulmate. I don't want to hurt that for you."

 

"What if I don't want them?" Her eyes beg Lexa to listen, to understand.

 

Lexa smiles in that sad way of hers. "Then you won't want them. But I do not want to take that chance from you. I do love you Clarke. I could fall in love with you but we both know it will cause us more pain than necessary."

 

Clarke's eyes fill with tears and Lexa pulls her into a hug. There is a sharp pain in Clarke's shoulder and she winces. Her soulmate was injured. Again.

* * *

 

When Clarke is twenty two she gets drunk enough to go to a tattoo shop and have the night sky etched onto her back. It is black and purple and blue and so beautiful. It stings like a bitch when she wakes up in the morning but it is her pain. She presses on the sensitive flesh before stumbling into the kitchen. Lexa is smirking at her and Octavia is staring at her like she is just now seeing Clarke. "What?"

 

"You have a tattoo."

 

"I know." She grumbles, heading for the kitchen where Lexa hands her a mug of coffee and Tylenol. Clarke twists her lips in thanks and Lexa just shakes her head.

 

Octavia leans forward, grinning widely because she had felt and watched Lincoln get his tattoos. "Did you freak out?"

 

Clarke blinks. "I don't remember last night."

 

And Lexa laughs because she has pictures and Clarke looks so confused and Octavia's lips are twisting into an almost evil grin. One that meant mayhem was to come.

 

It came, five weeks later when Octavia somehow pulled some pictures, none to innocent, from Lexa's phone. After all, teasing Clarke was Octavia's job. Lexa rolls her eyes and slips her phone back into her pocket because those were pictures of Clarke getting the tattoo and insisting Lexa show her the progress during her drunken event.

* * *

 

When Clarke is twenty-three she Octavia and Lexa are t-boned by an oncoming truck. Clarke is slumped in the passenger seat, blood dripping form her head as Octavia lays unconscious in the back seat. Lexa's arm is pinned to the steering wheel, blood dripping down her face as she slowly comes to. Her vision is swimming as Clarke groans next to her, slowly coming back to consciousness before letting out a pained hiss. Octavia has yet to move from the back seat and Lexa tilts her chin. "Clarke?" Her voice is calm and she can feel the blood dripping down her arm, knows everything is meant to hurt yet it doesn't. "Clarke!"

Clarke wakes with a low pained moan. "Lex?" Blue eyes are unfocused and the brunette groans because she couldn't move and they needed to get out of here. "What?" Blue eyes struggle to focus, heading bleeding swiftly and vision swimming.

 

"Clarke you need to get a phone and call 911." Lexa's voice is surprisingly calm and Clarke focuses on it, feels the panic and confusion in her chest rest as the brunette speaks. "I can't move and O is still unconscious.'

 

"Yeah. Okay. Okay." Clarke mumbles, eye fluttering shut and Lexa almost screams because what is Clarke doing? Why is she slumping to the side?

 

"Clarke!" The blonde stills and Lexa's voice isn't calm it is scared and broken. Lexa rips her arm from the steering column, unable to feel the muscle tear as she forces her self out of the crushed metal. Her finger find a phone and she calls 911, demanding they come before she is moving to the passenger side, her fingers press into Clarke throat and the girl's pulse is thankfully still thrumming against her finger tips. She can't get Clarke out, the metal to warped so she makes her way to the back, pressing her fingers into Octavia's neck. The girl was alive but battered and Lexa leans into the side of the car because she is tired. The truck that had hit them, lies down in the ditch, having smashed into the side of their car before careening into the large side of the road.

 

Lexa falls back into the passenger seat, eyes fluttering shut because nothing hurts but she's a little light headed. When the EMT's get there they remove the three girls from the car and pronounce the driver of the truck dead. A heart attack. Lincoln is at Bellamy's side, eyes wide and panicked because he had felt everything.

* * *

 When Clarke turns twenty-five she stands by her friends, leaning into Lexa's side when there is a sharp pain in her back and her legs go numb. She falls. Faster than a sack of potatoes and Lexa's arms are the only thing that keep her from hitting the ground. "Clarke?!" Lexa clutches at her, watching as blue eyes flutter and the blonde groans in pain. "Clarke look at me." Lexa's voice is soft yet commanding as their friends stare at the blonde in worry.

There is an almost pitiful whine from the blonde as she twitches in Lexa's hold. "My legs. I can't. My legs." Clarke stares at them, trembling because the pain is to great and it feels like her own. Her brain can't distinguish the difference. 

"Your legs are fine Clarke. Look at me." Lexa clutches at her as Clarke trembles, staring at her legs. "Clarke look at me."

"MY back. It hurt. I cant. I cant feel." Blue eyes are hazy and unfocused. "My leg. My legs."

"Its your soulmate Clarke. Look at me." She pinches her arms harshly, the skin reddens, already forming a bruise. Clarke winces but her eyes clear. "Focus on your feeling, your pain not your soulmate's."

Clarke slowly stands on trembling feet leaning into Lexa's side and the brunette stares at the rest of the party guests before leading Clarke up the stairs and to a bed. The fall into it and Clarke curls around Lexa. "They were hurt." Lexa says nothing as the blonde speaks in a broken tone. "They lost their legs and I'm not there. What good is this!" She is angry, rightfully so because to feel the pain of your soulmate is agonizing. Even more so if you can't help ease it. Lexa remembers it all too well. "I hate this Lexa. I hate this. I feel their pain and they are  _hurting_."

Lexa's voice is soft and broken. "But they are alive."

* * *

 

 When Clarke is twenty six she stumbles upon a man who grins like a boy and laughs like freedom. She meets a man who makes her feel alive but he is not her soulmate. He doesn't not ache when she trips and slams into the table. He does not wince went she bumps into a sharp edge of a counter but he makes her feel alive and Lexa. Lexa was one of her best friends and she couldn't bring herself to let Lexa end up hurt, especially by her own hand. So she and the boy with a laugh like freedom hook up. More than once and she's heading to his apartment, slipping in with the key he loaned her to get her badge back for work. What she doesn't expect is to stumble into another woman. Doesn't expect to see someone else coming through the door with a grin on her face before it falls. "Who are you?" Clarke stumbles back, left leg catching and digging into the table. The woman continues to glare at her, unflinching and suspicious.

 

Clarke swallows because this woman looked pissed and Clarke could deal with bleeder. Could deal with a fifteen car pile up and people throwing up on her but this woman was angry and she hadn't even spoken two words to her. "Clarke Griffin."

 

"What are you doing here?" The suspicion is there and the woman with skin dark than Clarke's and eyes even darker, glares at her.

 

"I forgot my badge last night." Clarke motions to the bedroom, knowing exactly where it had fallen, behind the headboard. "Finn told me to come get it."

 

The woman shifts on her feet, throat bobbing with emotion as she swallows. "You have a key?"

"Yeah, he had to work so he lent it to me." She grips the key tighter in her hand, tilting her chin to the door. "I'm leaving it under the mat like he asked."

 

The woman's glare is ten times worse than five seconds ago and her hands are steady even as her shoulders tremble in rage. "Who are you.?"

 

Clarke tilts her head to the side in confusion, there is an ominous foreboding in her gut that has her wanting to turn and run from this apartment. "Clarke Griffin."

 

"No. Are you _screwing_ my boyfriend." Her words are harsh and she takes a step closer, eyes blazing in a all consuming fire.

 

Clarke chokes on her own spit,staring at the woman in shock and understanding and apprehension. "Boyfriend?"

 

"You are aren't you!" The woman steps closer, fist clenched and eyes as dark as the night itself. "You little slut!"

"Whoa. No." Clarke holds her hands up shaking her head because this woman has the wrong idea. "I didn't know he was your boyfriend."

 

The girl shakes her head, shifting on her leg, Clarke's eyes catch the brace and something tugs at the back of her mind and her heart aches at this woman yelling at her but she didn't love Finn. Why did this hurt? Why did her stomach roll and flip and burn. "How long have you been fucking my boyfriend?"

"I don't." Dark eyes flash to her and Clarke sighs because this was a woman as determined and frightening as Lexa was when she played sports. "Two months. We're not dating, i'm not his soulmate. I didn't. I didn't know he had one."

"I'm not his fucking soul mate either!" She throws her hands out and Clarke almost flinches because there is so much _anger_ and pain in her voice that Clarke aches. "Doesn't mean I don't love him!"

 

There is the sound of a door opening and Finn looks up, his shaggy hair falling into his eyes and he pushes it back from his face, eyes widening and he swallows. "Oh shit."

* * *

 Two months later Clarke bumps into Raven again. The party was one of Murphy's, Lexa had pulled her along because Lincoln had forced her to do her 'once a week social outing' and Clarke was the best company. Lexa was distracted holding a ladder as Echo attempted to fix one of the lights and Bellamy is in the kitchen, cooking with Monroe. The silence is awkward and Raven rolls her eyes. "I broke up with Finn."

 

Clarke ducks her head because guilt was hitting her and her heart was racing for some odd reason. "I'm sorry I slept with him."

 

Raven shrugs almost helplessly and her lips twitch in an almost grin. "You didn't know."

 

Clarke relaxes because this isn't the heart aching angry woman who had called her a slut. Blue eyes are bright and Clarke's chest feels like it's soaring for some reason as she shrugs her shoulders at the tan skinned woman. "Yeah but I'm still sorry."

Before Raven can reply Octavia is dragging her into the kitchen for his knife skill. "You cut up bodies all day, please tell me you can cut vegetables." Octavia's voice is teasing and eyes full of mirth as Clarke rolls her own blue.

 

Raven comes in a few minutes later, beer in her hand as she eyes them. Bellamy is at the stove, fire flickering and eyes intent. Octavia is humming under her breath as she digs around in the cabinet. Clarke is chopping up vegetable and Raven can't hold in her snort. Blue eyes turn to look at her, sharp and demanding. "What?" There is a warning in her voice but Raven doesn't hear it or ignores it, grinning with a smugness that shouldn't send Clarke's stomach fluttering.

The woman shrugs almost innocently, picking up a slice of green pepper and stuffing it in her mouth as the blonde glares at her in challenge. "These aren't very even." There is a wicked gleam in dark eyes. "Is this what your patients look like after your through with them? All crooked cuts and shit?"

Clarke rolls blue eyes, glaring at the dark eyed grinning woman. "I can cut into someone and know where their vein is, missing it by a centimeter. I can cut well enough to kill or save a life." She brands the knife at Raven with sparking blue eyes.

Raven laughs throatily. "Just can't chop vegetables can you?"

 

Clarke rolls her eyes, cutting the vegetables again with sharp movements. "Fuck you." Her voice is almost petulant and Raven laughs loudly with a wide grin and Clarke slips because that laugh did something to her chest and suddenly there is a sharp pain in her hand and she jerks back with a yelp.

 

Raven jumps. "Ow, fuck." Gripping her right hand like it was on fire and Clarke drops the knife from her left and applies pressure to her bleeding palm.

 

Blue eyes widen as she stares at Raven. She presses into her palm almost wincing in pain before her face slackens because Raven's face twists and she massages her hand like it aches and Clarke just stares at her. "Oh." The words barely fall from the blonde's lips in a breathy whisper.

 

Raven face twists into shock, amusement and hope. "You've got to be shitting me." There is a wry grin on her lips.


	4. Omegaverse au (Clarke x Ice Queen)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Omega verse attempt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> POSSIBLE TRIGGER WARNING: Slight mention of rape of minor character, and an allusion to attempted rape/non-consensual sex.  
> (The skeleton of this chapter was written out before queen Nia of the show was cast. So this queen is a much younger different woman.)(There is also a sex scene.)

Clarke tilts her chin up in defiance, face coated in dirt and blood. The woman steps closer, muscles visible under the thin training clothing she has on, skin as pale as the snow on the ground. Clarke holds her breath as the woman prowls closer. "You are the on who tore down the mountain?"

"Yes."

The woman takes a deep breath. "An omega." Eye dilate but the woman holds strong, even as some of her warriors tremble. Clarke stares with fire in her eyes at the woman, teeth bared in challenge. The woman's pale eyes dance and she tilts her head. "Are you hungry?" Clarke swallows, hands threatening to shake and dark hair spills from the braid as the woman laughs at Clarke's silent defiance. "You can come with me or stay in the cold." She turns to leave and the warriors dressed in fur tremble. Some stand tall and eye their fellow warriors with caution, fingers on their weapons ready to intervene. Clarke huffs before trailing after the woman in thin clothing, musk filling her nose and blue eyes widen before she bites into her cheek.

The woman slips on a thin jacket and wipes the sweat from her face. "Eat if you wish."

Clarke's insides roll and her feet tingle with the cold, cheeks bitten red by the wind as she glare at the woman a few years older than she. "Do you know who I am?"

"You fell from the sky." She stalks to a table beside Clarke and the blonde refrains from stiffening. "Killed three hundred warriors in a ring of fire and made the mountain crumble." With a cloth she wipes the sweat clinging to her brow. "I was in awe of your power before today."

Clarke scowls. "And now that you know i'm an omega?"

The woman tilts her head to the side, her scent is soft yet powerful as it emits from her, not pushing out in dominance like some alphas. "I would fall to my knees before you if we faced in battle." She watches Clarke's eyes widen and her thin lips twitch, scar pulling at the left of her cheek. "But it will not come to that will it? I am curious as to why you are here."

Clarke stiffens, glaring at her. "Your warriors found me in the woods."

The woman gives a barely there nod. "And they brought you to me."

"They smelt me." Blue eyes flash and Clarke fingers curl as if claws. "I am not a prize for you."

"I didn't say you were." Pale grey eyes shift over Clarke, tilting to the side slowly. "It is not safe for lone warriors in the wild, especially omegas."

Her teeth bare, stark against her dirty face as a growl rumbles in her chest. "Is that a threat?"

The dark haired warrior release a huff, quiet and cautious. "No, but nomads have no ties, they would take you against your will."

"And you won't?'

Grey eyes are dark with latent hunger, pheromones pricking her nose as she pulls in a deep breath. "You are coming on your heat and I haven't touched you yet."

Clarke stiffens, hands curled and ready for an attack, itching for a knife. "Doesn't mean you won't."

Grey eyes darken and a scowl tightens across the woman's face. "I have more control than those whelps you have seen, I will not _take_ you." And that musk is permitting Clarke's nose, filling her lungs and surrounding her in its warmth. Pulsing in her blood and she shakes with it. The month alone had been harsh on Clarke, she stood thinner than any omega should be, all lanky muscles and bones. Dirt ridden and scarred yet standing strong as the alpha before her pulls in another breath. "I can smell remnants of an alpha on you, did they take you against your will?"

"Tried to." Clarke's eyes spark dangerously and the queen tilts her head to the side at the blonde's feral behavior. "I killed him." 

"Good." Her eyes are bright before they narrow. "Was it one of my warriors?"

"I left him a mile north of here."

The alpha drops her chin in admission, walking to the side of the room, away from Clarke and the table. "You can rest here if you like, none will harm you."

"Why should I trust you?"

Grey eyes are curious. "Why shouldn't you?"

"You're an alpha. You're the Ice Queen." Clarke swallows, legs barely keeping her upright, she chooses to ignore it. "You killed Costia."

"You are an omega. You are the leader of the sky. You killed over five hundred of the ground and three hundred of the mountain, why shouldn't I fear you?" Clarke just stares at her and the queen tilts her head to the side almost lazily. "None will come in this tent without your permission."

"Why?"

The queen's lips twitch. "Because it is impolite to enter a place uninvited."

Clarke's eyes are wide and her heart thunders wildly in her chest. "No, why would they leave me alone?"

The queen's nostrils flare as Clarke's pheromones press out thickly, catching in her lungs and causing her blood to thrum. She stills her chest, under the coming heat there is the smell of desperation, fear and exhaustion. "Because I ordered them to. If they touch you they will lose the hand that _dares_ touch you." The woman's eyes are darkening. "I will see you tomorrow or I won't. Sleep well."

Clarke falls into the corner of the room as the door shuts, a fur blanket tucked under her, smelling of beta, her fingers curled around the knife hidden in her sleeve. This last week she had spent in the trees, climbing up them and with her back pressed into the bark on to watch. To see any attackers coming and attempting to get sleep. She curls around her legs, body trembling as slowly she falls to unconsciousness.

Her dreams are of the dead. Boiled and falling apart. Children's hands pulling at her clothing, jacket stained with blood. Skin falling as they yank the gauntlets from her wrists. As they tear at the shoulder pad with bloodied fingers before ripping Clarke's gun from her, dripping with blood and ooze. A soccer ball rolls her way and Maya steps forward, unblemished and alive. "You killed my people."

Clarke shakes, the beta's eyes are calculating as they watch her speak. "I had too."

"They were children." There is a soft yet accusing flint to dark eyes.

"I had to save them. Save Jasper."

Maya's face twists with rage, skin reddening. "You mean your mother."

Clarke's arms burns and she trembles. "Cage was going to kill her. Kill Octavia and all of my friends."

Boils form on Maya and she tilts her head to the side. "You saved them yet you left them."

Clarke stares at her hands, covered in thick red blood. "I'm a monster."

"Yes."

Blue eyes fill with tears and she reaches for Maya. "I'm sorry."

Cracked lips release a harsh choked laugh. "No, you're not."

"Yes I am!" Blue eyes are wide and desperate. "I wish I could go back."

"But you would do it again if needed."

Clarke drops her head. _"Yes."_ Her words crack through parted lips.

"You killed me." Maya kneels down beside her, skin thick with boils.

Clarke chokes on her breath, shaking. "I'm so _sorry."_

Maya's gentle face is twisted and grotesque. "I helped your people and you _killed_ me."

"I wish I hadn't have had to."

The boils melt away and a saddened clear skinned Maya grips Clarke's chin. "But you did."

"I'm _sorry."_ Clarke chokes on her sobs _._  "I'm so sorry"

"You killed all of us. You killed all the _children._ " Maya takes a knife, staring at it before she drives it into Clarke's stomach. Clarke screams out in pain, twisting away. 

* * *

 

Clarke bites into the pillow to muffle her soft whimper of pain as she wakes from the nightmare. The small throb and flush of yesterday had turned into a deep hollowness inside, waiting to be full. Her skin was flushed with heat, pheromones trickling from her scent glands, sweat beading across her brow and lower back. Her teeth ache and she bites harder into the pillow, teeth leaving indentions as her insides twitch and flutter. Searching and agonizing. She had gone too long without a bed-mate. Too long without the suppressants they offered on the Arc.

There is a knock at her door and Clarke moans pitifully before sitting up straight in the corner, standing on shaky legs even as her body tries to curl in on itself. Her joints tremble and she grips the knife. Another knock on the post. "Who is it?"

"Nia." The woman's voice is surprisingly steady and Clarke trembles at the soft authority in it. "I have brought you food. I can leave it outside the door or bring it in."

Clarek closes her eyes, even thinking about opening the door makes her heart flutter in fear, yesterday foremost in her mind, the alpha's oppressing heat. The bulge in his pants and the hot breath on her neck before she drove the knife into his throat. Clarke hears the woman take a small whiff of the air. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Clarke chokes out, fingers trembling on the knife.

"I will bring the food in." There is a slight hinge of caution in Nia's voice. "Betas will stand guard outside you tent."

Clarke shakes her head, heart racing. "You'll loose control. I won't hesitate to kill you."

"I am not some pup." There is a hint of amusement but also a sternness to her words. "And you may smell good but not enough to make me loose control."

Clarke presses against the wall, eyes darting for an exit in case things go awry. "Heats make the most controlled alpha go insane."

"They make uncontrolled alphas act like animals." Nia's voice is sharp with authority. "Our instincts are a part of us, they can be managed."

Clarke remains silent, waiting for the woman to come in but it is silent. After a few minutes Clarke speaks. "You can come in." Her fingers tighten on the knife.

Nia enter quietly, making barely any sound, the hut door creaking against her shoulder. She enters and as the door shut quickly behind her her eyes meet Clarke's. She pulls in a quick short breath and Clarke watches her pupils dilate. Black spreading over grey. Calloused fingers tighten over her knife and Nia tilts her head, setting the food on the table. "I will not attack you." Clarke clenches her jaw, hips shifting as she stands in the corner. Blown grey eyes flicker to the untouched bed before finding Clarke and the pillows in the corner. "I can find you a different accommodation if this is not to your standards."

Clarke stiffens, glaring balefully at the alpha. "I don't like my back in the open."

"You are wise to be wary of unknown place, but you will not be harmed here."

Clarke scoffs, eyes follow Nia as she leans against the wall farthest from Clarke and the door, offering an escape route Clarke had been desperately searching for. "I can't trust your word."

"I don't expect you to." Dark hair is pulled back into tight braid, white feathers interwoven into it. Wolf teeth twisted into the ends of some as she tilts her head to the side, motioning to a room. "There is a washroom in the back, water already supplied. Heat the coals if you wish for a warm one." Her eyes never waiver from Clarke, never dip to the knife or her sweat soaked chest. Never find the source of the heat or pheromones, they simply meet her eyes. "Cold baths tend to help with the heat, cool the skin and fever."

"How would you know this?"

Nia tilts her head again, dark braids slipping across her shoulders, lips twitching. "You are't the only omega, Natshana."

Clarke stiffens, narrowing her eyes, hands tight on the knife. "What did you call me?"

"Natshana. The moon, steady and strong but changing. You did not give me a name." The blonde turns her chin away from the leader of the Ice and the woman gives a barely there nod as she stands from her position against the wall. "I will bring you more food."

"Am I imprisoned here?"

A dark eyebrow slope high before falling back into a neutral expression. "You can leave whenever you wish, I am offering you a place to rest without threat."

Clarke grips the knife tighter, warily watching the alpha. "There is no such place."

"I will bring more food later, you will be here or you won't." The woman shrugs, heading for the door. "Goodbye Natshana."

Clarke watches the gap close quickly and hears orders given to the two guards at the door. "She may leave if she wishes but none will enter."

"Sha Kwin."

She remains in the corner, hand trembling on the knife, her insides roll and coil, and she curls in on herself, empty and too hot. The sun climbs higher and higher in the sky before the smell of the food causes her stomach to growl. Unable to remember the last time she ate her feet carry her to the wooden plates. There is a lumpy thing of bread and dried meat. A plate of fresh fruit, none Clarke had seen before, sits beside a pitcher of water.

She picks up the fruit, feeling the soft skin before puncturing the flesh with her teeth. Soft juice spills over her mouth and she brings her fingers up to stop it from dripping down her chin. Chewing thoughtfully she takes another, slightly larger, bite. Before she knows it her teeth hit a pit and the fruit is gone, fingers sticky and stomach calming she sighs gently, pouring water into a glass and sniffing it. There is no hint of alpha on this glass or food. An omega, mated, made the food and Clarke relaxes sipping at the water and picking at the meat.

Knife still in hand she takes a small bite of the meat before heading to the back waiting to see if it had any ill affects. Any hallucinogenics in it or sedatives. She enters the back of the tent and finds the tub, metal and large on a bed of coals, bundles of sticks rest beside the tub and Clarke presses her fingers into the water. It's cold to the touch, nearly freezing as it forces her hand to retract from it. Her skin itches, hot and feverish and she presses her entire hand into the cold water before bringing the now cooled hand to the back of her neck. She trembles at the cold, chasing the heat away even as her inside clench painfully, throbbing and begging. Her nails dig into her hands and she steps away from the tub, stumbling back into the corner of the room and pressing a hand below her stomach, hard and unforgiving. Her thighs clench together and her knees curl to her chest. Shivers roll down her shoulder to her back and her hips twitch. She buries her teeth back into the pillow, nails digging into the soft comfort and she stares with bleary eyes at the door.

The time passes agonizingly slow until there is another knock on her door. Clarke ignores it, rocking slightly, tears in her eyes and zeroed in on the door suspiciously. "May I enter?" Clarke does not speak and the seconds that pass are agonizingly slow. "I will send in someone else if you do not wish it to be me." Clarke throat tightens in fear and a soft sound escapes her chest, the thought of an alpha forcibly pressing into her make her tremble with terror even as her body throbs with the need to be filled. There is a shuffle outside the door and shaking fingers tighten on the knife as she waits and waits. "I brought an omega, the one who made your food." Clarke makes a soft sound and silence only follows. "May she enter Natshana?"

"The omega." Clarke bites out through gritted teeth. "Just the omega."

"Of course."

The door opens before it is shut quickly. There is a woman before her, maybe early twenties. She is short in height with thick dark hair and plump with pregnancy. Her eyes soften when she spots Clarke. "Child." Clarke shakes and the woman walks closer, kneeling next to her, setting the food down with a hand cradling her stomach. "Are you alright?" Clarke ignores her, rocking back and forth like a child woken from a nightmare. A soothing hand is hovering over her. "May I touch you?" Clarke gives a sharp shrug and the woman waits. Brown eyes meet frantic blue before Clarke nods. A soft yet calloused hand settles onto her cheek and Clarke pulls in a deep breath, the fear in her chest stills at the comfort given off by the very pregnant mated omega. Everything about her meant to calm.

Clarke's rocking stills and she continues to pull in deep breaths of the omega, soothing. It reminds her of her father and tears fall down her cheeks, she turns her head away but the woman spots them. "It is alright child." Her fingers sooth through Clarke's hair, untangling mats gently and Clarke relaxes for the first time in what feels like eternity. The woman hands her a drink. "It will help, I promise."

"Why should I trust you?" Clarke spits out, throwing the cup form her hand, backing away from the woman with narrowed eyes, pulling in the scent of her own shirt, losing the calming effects of the pregnant omega. "You could drug me, give me to an alpha."

Brown eyes sharpen. "I would not risk an omega like that." She stares at Clarke, eyes glittering dangerously. "I know what it is like, do not assume I would do to you what was done to me." 

Clarke ducks her head. "Sorry, I didn't realize."

"No, but that is fine. You are safe here."

"You can't promise that."

"Omega to omega, you will not be forced and taken here. I promise you this, the queen would kill any alpha who even dares to try that." Clarke nods her head sharply and the omega sighs. "Come, let's get you into the bath, it will help."

Clarke trails after her with a cautious gait, eyes on the door. The omega throws the curtain open wide, allowing the door to be seen from the tub. She bends down with a grunt, setting the coal and branches aflame before stepping back. "Let it warm a bit before you get in. The cold may help but you don't want to freeze." Clarke shifts nervously. "I can leave if you want." Clarke's eyes widen with slight terror and the woman steps closer. "No harm will come to you, but I can stay here if it makes you feel safer."

"Your alpha?"

"Will understand."

Clarke shifts, right arm curled around her stomach, cradling herself in a tight hug. "I can take care of myself."

She stares at Clarke, the left hand tight on the knife. "I don't doubt that, but two sets of eyes are better than one. I'll watch the door while you bathe."

Clarke trembles, eyes on the door and the omega's back as she strips her clothing off and gently settles into the tub. The water is cool yet not freezing as she sinks into it and the flush is pulled from her skin, soothing even as her inside clench and throb with need, forcing her hands to grip at her stomach pitifully. She washes the dirt and grim from her, dipping her head quickly before running her fingers through it. Minutes later she is jumping out of the bath and gripping a towel to her chest. "There are clothes to the left of you, I wash them myself."

Clarke picks them up, eyeing her dirty clothes clumped on the ground before sniffing cautiously at the shirt in her hand. It smells like the omega and Clarke pulls it over her head, sighing at the noninvasive smell before finishing getting dressed, pulling on thin undergarment and pants, stuffing her feet into sock and boots. The towel is wrapped around her hair and she cautiously finds her way back to the corner, eyes on the omega and the door. "Thank you." Clarke's voice is barely loud enough to hear but the omega smiles softly, eyes finding Clarke as she stands.

She walks closer to Clarke, sitting on the bed with a slight grunt. "I will stay the night if it make you feel safer."

"You should go be with your mate." Clarke trembles. "I'm fine."

Brown eyes narrow. "You are not, and he will understand."

"Please, i'll be fine. I appreciate this but I don't trust any of you. I can't."

The omega stands. "That is understandable, I will be back if you need me." Soft hands hover near Clarke and the blonde nods. They press into her cheek, cupping them before lifting her to face the woman. "You will be perfectly safe here, I promise this to you as an omega." Thumbs brush over her cheek bone, bumping over a fresh scar. "Sleep well child."

Clarke sniffs. "I'm not much younger than you."

"No." Eyes look at Clarke full of sorrow. "You're not."

Clarke watches her leave and stands up, shoving the table in front of the door before she buries her nose into the shirt, taking in the soothing smell of mated omega. It reminds her so much of her father that she cant stop the sob leaving her throat as she slumps in the corner. She buries her mouth into the pillow to muffle the noise, teeth digging into it for a completely different reason than earlier. Her heart aches and she wants her father's arms around her, Wells beta scent in her nose. She just want to feel safe. To feel at home again. Her fingers find the knife again, like a safety blanket and the tears slow, she picks at the food in front of her, eating it slowly. Her stomach settles but her insides still ache with each beat of her heart. It still demands to be filled. Her thighs clench and she curls around herself shoving her hand to press between her legs to try and take some of the throbbing away. It does not work and she counts her breaths like her father had taught her. She falls into a fitful sleep, the smell of safety in her nose.

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

The blonde jolts with a start, wide eyes searching the room before she finds the source of the noise, at the door there is a shadow and she stiffens, crouching as her fingers tighten around the knife. There is a knock on the door again and Clarke stiffens even more before the voice filters through. "I have brought food again, the omega is here as well if you wish for company."

Clarke darts eyes wildly around the room, heart still racing from her nightmare. Her breathing calms and she realizes she has been silent for a few minutes. "Just the omega."

"Of course." The alpha's voice is calm and gentle.

"Can I come in?" The omega's voice is soft.

Clarke races to the door, pulling the table away from it. "Yeah."

The door opens quickly and the omega shuffles in, plate in one hand and fingers tangled around a young girls wrist. Clarke stares with wide eyes. "My daughter, my mate was need for a hunting party."

"Oh."

The woman smiles gently. "If you'd rather call me Lina than omega that would be fine." Her eyes are teasing and Clarke drops her head but does not give her name. Lina just dips her head and sets the plate on the table. "Eat, you'll need your strength."

Clarke sits down in a chair, knees bouncing. The child is staring at her with wide curious eyes, tilting her head to the side, small fingers tangled around a thin wooden horse.  _"She is the sun."_ Clarke blinks in confusion at the words as Lina lets out a gentle laugh. 

"She called you the sun. Your hair." Clarke ducks her head, eyes on the child and her chest expands in sharp rapid breaths as the mountain looms in her mind. She focuses on the wooden horse, trying to calm herself but she is reminded of a soccer ball. Before she knows it she is across the room and rocking, pulling at her hair and breathing in too quick breaths. "Child?" Lina steps closer, eyes darting around the room as her own child begins to wail in fear, wide eyes on the keening sound coming from the omega in the corner. _"NIA!"_ Her word is sharp and the door is thrown open by the alpha. "Take my daughter."

"Lina?!" Startled eyes look for an intruder but only find the omega in the corner. _"What happened?'_

"Out." She presses a kiss to her daughter cheek. _"Marin, go with Nia, everything is fine."_  

Nia, with the child in her arms, is pushed out the door by the omega and the door is shut in her confounded face. The two betas eye her with confusion and caution but she bares her teeth and they turn back around, wiping the curious looks from their eyes. She looks down at the child in her arms, deep brown eyes are full of confused tears.  _"Calm child, let us find Fralin."_

Clarke's breathing has become even shorter and her chest trembles as her hands rip at her hair, throat aching with pain as she keens lowly. Lina steps close. "I'm going to touch your shoulder." The blonde does not acknowledge her and Lina bends down, hand on her own stomach as she meets the eyes of the omega. They are far away and too pained. "Talk to me, what happened?" The blonde continues to make the awful sound low in her throat and chest that pulls at every nurturing bone in Lina's body. 

The dark haired omega grunts as she sits down beside the blonde, slipping soothing fingers over her shoulder and hair, combing through it. The sounds does not die after almost twenty minutes of this but her shoulders stop trembling. Lina keeps untangling the knots in her hair, braiding small sections of it as the girl pulls in short sharp lungful of mated omega.

Tears continue to fall down her face and the sound slowly dies in her throat after a few more minutes of the older omega's gentle fingers in her hair. The worn blonde's body slumps into the pregnant omega's. Her heart beat is still too quick against Lina's fingertips but the woman continues to comb fingers through the younger woman's hair. She looks like a child, broken and scared. It makes the woman ache with a need to help and nurture.  "I'm meant to care for children." The blonde's voice is rough and Lina keeps her own mouth shut, staring ahead as she continues to comb through blonde locks. Clarke sniffs, eyes still dropping tears as she breaks. "We're made to bear children and care for them. Nurture them. Everything about us is meant to care for them." Blue eyes stare far away. "I killed everyone in the mountain. I killed all the children." Wild eyes find Lina's as the omega looks down to the blonde. "I _killed_ them." Her breathing picks up again and fingers fist on the tail of Lina's shirt. "Someone pulled the lever with me." The words flood from her lips. "But he's an alpha. He doesn't know what we feel, how we work. He doesn't know that it _killed_ me to kill them. To watch them die. I killed children." Her words beat into Lina's ear and her heart is set on a frenzy, hand coming to cradle her unborn child as the blonde rambles. "I killed them." The younger woman's voice is a low whisper and her eyes find Lina's hand on a bulging belly. She scrambles away from the pregnant omega, eyes downcast as she presses herself into the wall. "Sorry."

"Child." Clarke flinches back at the word and Lina licks her lips. "Sweetling, it is fine."

Blue eyes remain downcast. "I'm fine, you can go. I won't hurt your children."

"I never thought you would."

"I'm not the right kind of omega. I never will be." Blue eyes harden and the blonde wipes at her cheek roughly. "I don't need your help or _pity._ I'm fine. You can go."

Brown eyes are soft and far too understanding as she stands with a grunt and hand on a curved belly. "I was only trying to calm you down."

"Well i'm fine now." Clarke turns away from her, shoulders stiff even as her fingers shake. "You can go."

"I'll be around if you need me Sweetling." Her fingers itch to stroke the hurting blonde but she steps away with quiet feet, dark eyes darting back to look at trembling shoulders.

* * *

 Nia finds her the second she exits through the door. "What happened? Who broke my orders?"

"No one tried anything." Brown eyes find the hut with the beta guards in front of it. "She told me things in secret, she is a broken girl." Her hand cradles her stomach and Nia catches the unconscious action, filing it away. "Do not push her Nia, she will lash out."

"I didn't plan on it Lina."

"I grew up with you, you're very brash darling." Grey eyes narrow and Lina chuckles softly, facing the Alpha with a soft smile. "Thank you for taking Marin."

Nia stiffen, swallowing. "She is sweet. Smart and strong."

Brown eyes brighten with parental pride. "She is." Those eyes fill with worry as they turn back to the hut the omega has been in for two days. "Let her rest, do what you've been doing."

"Mochof Lina."

Lina tilts her head to the side, a half smile on her face. _"You and your too big heart."_

Nia stiffens, glaring at the pregnant woman. " _I am a monster Lina, you know this."_

 Brown eyes flash and with a thick swallow the omega presses into her unborn baby, seeking comfort in the familiar kick against her palm.  _"We do what we have to to survive."_

_"And I will bear the monstrosities for my people."_

Lina stares at her, hand moving to grip long pale fingers and squeeze. _"You two aren't very different."_

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

 

There is a knock on the door and Clarke looks up with stormy blue eyes. Her hand is tight on the knife and her eyes are bloodshot. "I've brought food."

Clarke licks her lips, eyes darting around the room, her breathing is sharp and loud in the empty room. "Come in."

Nia tilts her head in confusion before opening the door. Her eyes darken at the swirl of omega pheromones in the hut, thick with days of being in here. Clarke looks up at her and Nia set the food on the table. Clarke stands and Nia eyes the knife in her hand before finding Clarke's wild eyes and tear stained cheeks. The blonde steps closer, letting her knife hand drop as she comes to stand in front of the alpha, Clarke relaxes her shoulders as her insides clench with _need_ , pheromones twisting around her in a coat of want and heat.  "Take care of my heat."

Nia's nose flares and her entire body stiffens. "You are not thinking correctly, I will not take advantage of you in this time."

"I don't care, it is killing me." Her eyes are a burning frantic energy, full of pain and something else. Something Nia recognizes from too many years of doing what is needed. A thick need to feel something other than _pain._ "I have been alone for my heats too long. I need someone and you're the only alpha I can somewhat trust in this place."

"The heat is addling your brain." Nia steps back, jaw tight as she struggles not to breath to deep. "If we discussed this before your heat I would gladly help you." Her eyes bore into Clarke's blue. "But I will not succumb to animal urges. I will bring you more food in a while. Goodbye Natshana."

"You're turning down my offer? An omega in heat?!" Clarke growls out, pumping pheromones in her need to be mated. To be filled. To feel something other than this _emptiness._

Nia tenses, eyes darkening and her hands tremble as the smell of an omega in heat is thickening through the now too small hut. "Sexual relations during heat undicussed is not noble. I will not take you because your heat  _demands_  it.

"Some alpha." Clarke scoffs, eyes glinting in challenge and danger. "Any other alpha would have taken my offer."

"Any other alpha would have taken you without an offer." Her eyes are darker than Clarke had ever seen them in the past three days. "I am not some alpha. I am not other alphas. If you wish for heat sex then find another, but I will not be a part of this." She leaves with stilted fast steps, shutting the door quickly behind her. Outside the tent she pulls in a deep slightly contaminated lungful of air. Her entire body trembles and she clenches her jaw, teeth aching as she stands outside the tent. " _None enter without permission, any try yell for me."_   Both betas nod, eyes wide with awe. They could smell the omega from here. Could hear other alphas struggling to remain clearheaded when they weren't even in proximity of the unmated omega.

Nia stalks across the camp, shaking before she grabs two of her strongest alphas. Both take one look at her before their eyes widen and they wrinkle their nose in distaste, knowing already they will leave with severe bruising and wrenched arms. Both roll back their shoulders before they begin to fight their queen. She is aggressive in all her move, blood thrumming with need that she had ignored in the hut. 

* * *

Clarke throws the food across the room with a shriek of desperation. The wooden plate clatters against the wall and the metal jug splatters water all across the floor. Clarke shakes, picking up the thin chair with shaking arms she throws it across the room, it doesn't break. It bounces and clatters around until it stops and she lets out another shout of pain and frustration. Kicking at the metal cup to send it flying into the wall. Her chest is heaving and her eyes burn as everything in the room stills again.

The fit had done nothing to change her emotions, she was still just as empty as before. Just as sad and desperate. She falls to her butt with a cry of despair, deep agonizing sobs rack her body. She breaks because everything _aches_ but most of all she just wants to forget the mountain. Forget the way the children had looked slumped over one another. Forget the way her insides had rolled and how it shattered every remaining shard of her heart. 

Her hands grip the knife and she fingers the blade, touching it to her fingertips with a thick sniffle, tears fall down her face and she releases a thick sigh, swallowing as she presses the point into her finger tip, watching the blood well up. It drips down slowly and splatters across the floor and she watches another small drop bead before rolling to the palm of her hand. With another loud snuffle she stands on shaking legs and makes her way to the corner of the room, fingers gripping a blanket as she all but falls into the corner. Her hand rubs over her face, smearing the blood across her cheek and eye. She wipes at her running nose, too lost to care about the mess she is making of herself. Her chest still shudders with each breath, catching in the end and fluttering with grief. "I'm sorry." Her voice is cracking and thick. "I'm so sorry." Wavering blue eyes stare at the image in front of her, Maya hand linked with a young child's. The young girl holds a small doll, dirty from years of use and her lips pull back into a smile, showing a missing tooth. Maya's throat starts bleeding and Clarke's lips tremble. "I'm sorry." The child's skin burns red and Clarke closes her eyes. "I'm sorry." The words leave her lips, choked and thick with guilt and greif.

* * *

 Nia's shoulders are tense as the smell of spilt blood presses into her nose. Her fingers twitch and she turns her head to the tent as one of her warriors slams into her side, she easily dispatches him with an elbow to his throat and a wrenched arm to throw him over her shoulder. Her eyes meet Lina's and the omega gives her a trembling but gentle smile, before she opens the hut door, shutting it quickly behind her. The two beta's shift back in front of the door, eyes on some of the alphas struggling with trembling muscles, some are dragged off to fight while others sharpen their weapons by the herb hut, the thick smell of the herbs masking the omega's heat. With a flash of teeth she spins under the other alpha's arm kicks his knee and brings her hands to his neck. He tilts it in defeat as Nia can barely make out gut wrenching sobs. Her heart clenches and she pulls back from her warriors. " _Again."_

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

The heat lasts another three days and when Nia does her morning rounds the smell of heat is depleted, left over from last night and her shoulders relax. The two beta guards dip their chins in acknowledgment, hand fisting over their chest before falling back to their side. She rounds the fences, exchanging glances with her guards, listening to the soft snores of her people as the sun slowly rises. She makes her way to the food hut, dipping her chin at the omega there. Her alpha's scent clings to her as does her children's. "Dinka." The woman scowls at her and Nia flashes her a half smile.

The omega watches her with a grudging annoyance born from knowing the queen since childhood. _"You creep in here every morning, sit and eat."_

Nia raises her chin, grey eyes narrowed.  _"I have many things to do today Dinka."_

The omega narrows her eyes. " _You would do well to eat Nia, our people need their queen strong."_

 _"I am never weak."_  Grey eyes flash before she swallows, dipping her chin close to her chest. _"Thank you for the food Dinka."_

Dinka puts more food than normal on the plate, loading it with meat while scowling at the alpha. " _She will need the protein, you as well my Queen."_

"Mochof." The queen ducks out of the tent, squaring her shoulders and making her way to the tent that holds the sky fallen omega. She knocks on the door. "I have brought food."

Inside the tent Clarke jerks upright from her position against the corner. Her hands find the knife and she relaxes at the calmness that falls over her. Her heat is gone. "Come in."

Clarke watches the door open and the alpha steps in, pressing it shut behind her before setting the food on the table. "I have food." Grey eyes meet Clarke's head on. "You can stay here as long as you wish, but if you wish to leave we can supply you with necessities."

"Why?"

Nia's lips twitch but her face remains impassive. "It is not kind outside the walls of villages."

Blue eyes narrow and Clarke shifts her fingers tighter around her knife in suspicion. "Why would you help me?"

"Because you saved our people. Because you need it." The queen shrugs. "Need there be any other reason?"

Clarke shifts nervously, glaring balefully at her. "People don't just do things because they're right, they have motivations. Reasons."

Nia tilts her chin high, hands fisting behind her back. "I almost lost my warriors to the mountain. They stole many of them. You gave our warriors absolution. Their revenge."

Clarke raises from the corner, dropping the blanket and glaring at the queen with wild eyes. "I didn't do it for them!"

"No." Nia tilts her head to the side. "But they are gone either way."

"Children are dead, do you even care?" The words crack as they leave the blonde's lips. "The mountain held children."

"As did our villages, as did the pregnant omegas and beta's that were trapped in that mountain. The alpha's that were turned into reapers." The alpha's shoulders tremble with rage. "The children the reapers took and killed. The mountain has haunted us for many years, children were raised with fear in their bones and death on their backs. In times like those we do what is necessary, you took down the mountain because it was needed."

Blue eyes fill with tears and her left hand trembles across the knife. "I killed _children."_

"And that will haunt you until the day you die, you don't forget things like that." Grey eyes harden and a jaw clenches as the alpha swallows thickly. "You never will."

Tears fall down Clarke's cheek and Nia steps back. "Eat, gain your strength, no decisions need to be made."

Clarke watches her leave with a quiet sniffle, wiping at her nose she sighs deeply, heart aching. With trembling feet she heats the coals before moving to grab the food left behind by the queen. Clarke forces the food down a too tight throat and strips of clothes that smell like heat, sweat, and pain. She settles into the warm water, scrubbing at her skin and neck as she watches the door. With quick efficiency she ducks her head under the water to clean it, wide eyes finding the door as she comes back up. Her fingers brush through her hair to loosen any knots and she relaxes for once into the warm water. Her shoulders slump and for the first time in a month and a half she feels somewhat okay. 

Grabbing the towel as she stands up her eyes find her own clothing, the clothes from the Arc. The gauntlet and shoulder guard Lexa had given her are long gone, lost in the forest, Clarke's blood and tears staining them. The blue jacket stands out against the deep grey and white furs and blue eyes turn to the clothes Lina had given her, they smell of heat and with gentle footsteps Clarke makes her way to the door. She knocks and hears the soft murmur of confusion from the guards. "Sha?"

Clarke swallows, fingers clenching around the towel fisted across her chest. "Could you get Lina?"

"Sha, hod up." She hears the shift of one of the guards leaving, his footsteps silent and she waits with baited breath, hand finding her knife. There is a sudden knock on her door and Clarke stiffens.

"It's Lina, whats wrong?" The omega's voice is high with worry.

Clarke swallows. "I need clothes, these smell like heat."

"Of course." The is relief tainting her voice, a gentle understanding. "I'll be back." 

Clarke shifts nervously, knife still in hand. No one may have attacked her during her heat but that didn't matter, anything could happen. She had learned to look for danger around every corner, to expect an attack. There is a knock again. "Come in." Lina steps in and shits the door quickly, her eyes find Clarke's as she passes the clothes over. They dart to the pile of heat soaked clothing and then the clothes Clarke had worn in the mountain. Clothes that remind Clarke of before and during. "I'll get these washed in case you need them again." She smiles gently at Clarke. "Dinner is around sunset, find the fire if you want to. If not we can bring you food."

"Thank you." Clarke whispers, hands tight on the things in her hands. The other omega nods, lips twisting into a more sedate smile as she leaves the hut.

Clarke pulls in the undergarments, sighing at the smell of clean, no alpha, no heat. Just clean with a hint of Lina remaining on the clothing. Clarke pulls on the pants, too loose around the hips but the belt is pulled tight around her waist. Thick socks find her feet and she stuffs them into the boots, strapping all the buckles to her legs before she pulls on the loose shirt, it is grey and thin but clean. Though the quarter sleeves are tight around her biceps. She pulls on the vest, buckling the straps before her hands find the thick jacket, lined with fur inside the jacket as well as on the outside of the shoulders. The only color against the black is the white of the fur and small beads woven into the shoulders. Clarke shakes the jacket out and fur gloves tumble to the floor, followed by a harness for the knife she clutched like a security blanket.

She tightens straps on her legs, sliding her knife in it. Her heart stills and calm falls over her as she pulls the jacket on. She is not the omega who spoke too loud during class and held her chin high when she should duck it to her chest on the Arc. She is not Prisoner 319, hair pulled back into a single braid, charcoal on her finger tips and a too used shirt on her shoulders. She is not the Princess, dark blue jacket patched, with a map in her hands and blood on her fingertips. She is not Clarke Griffin, clothes stiff with starch and stitches on her arms. She is not the chancellor's daughter, face split open and another blue jacket on her shoulders. She is not the leader of the Sky, shoulder pad thick, gauntlets jingling and betrayal in her eyes. She is not the mountain slayer, finger on a trigger, ears ringing with her hand wrapped around a handle and eyes on the dead. She is simply there, name unknown, a knife on her thigh and fur on her shoulders. She is  _free._  

With a deep breath she makes her way outside. Shaking fingers pull the door open and both betas look to her before dipping their heads in greeting. She walks out between them stiffly, turning to face them. They continue to stand by the door. "Are you going to follow me?"

They both tip their chins up and square their shoulders, meeting her gaze head on. "Nau."

She watches them cautiously before making her way through the village. Her eyes dart around and around, taking in the overly large walls, high and thick with barbs at the top. The bustle of life is loud. Warriors in the middle of training exercises in the far corner, shouts and the clang of metal on metal. There is smoke climbing high from one of the huts. The smell of meat cooking in another and she watches as children scream and run past her. A mutt nipping at their heels, ball rolling between their feet. Clarke's breathing picks up and her vision swims, hands begin to shake and she stumbles to find solid walls. To find something to hold onto and focus on. "Natshana?" Nia greets her cautiously. Grey eyes flit over her form and the alpha reaches for the omega. "I'm going to move you, your breathing will only grow quicker until you calm down. Breathe and focus on something other than memories." Her hands tentatively find Clarke's elbow and she is pulling the omega to the food hut, letting her in and standing far away from her as the smell of cooking meat fills the room. "Focus on the smell of the meat."

"Burning." Clarke chokes out, blue eyes unfocused and wide.

Nia growls low at her own stupidity, Clarke's hand finding her elbow and allowing the alpha to lead her past the food and to the gate. It opens and Nia lets Clarke take in the high trees, the chill in the air. "Breathe." Clarke falls to the ground, pressing her back into a tree and nose into the knee of her pants.

Clarke swallows down her panic attack, pulling in quick breaths, matching them with the woman next to her until she is calm. 

* * *

* * *

 

* * *

The month passes with little incidents, children still set off panic attacks so the omega steers clear of them. A wide berth that most of the camp take notice of but do not mention. Lina helps her find a place around the camp, not sewing, never sewing like they were taught on the Arc. No, Lina taught her how to bend a sword until it was straight again. The mated omega showed her how to heat a blade just right, to watch the colors dance across the metal. Most days she would find the queen watching her with cautious grey eyes and some times they would talk. Never about the past war or death or children, nothing about the mountain. They spoke of patrols and winter. Of food and how the Ice had changed under the alpha's rule.  

She found little things to do with her hands that did not bring back the ringing of a gunshot or the panic of the kill switch. She worked with knots beside a beta, tying, tying and tying until her fingers were bleeding and then calloused. She worked until the knots were strong enough to anchor down any pole. Until making knots became second nature to her, the same as stitches once had been. She steers clear of the healer's tent, the smell of blood sets her on edge, the moans of the pained bring her crashing and so she adapts.

She learns new things, she grows familiar with the chill to the air and the bustle of the camp. She keeps away from the triggers that set her off, children, blood, healers. She learns to forge swords, to tie knots that would make the sailors of the past scowl in envy. She learns to defend her self with her fists, with a twist to her hips and locked shoulders. Learns to throw a knife like it was born to fly from her hands. She adapts. In that month she create bonds with what everyone had deemed a savage clan. She made peace and bonds with a clan that accepted her omega status without a scoff or skeptic look. With a clan that did not mention the mountain or war. Too far away from any other clans to have territorial disputes every week. She grows to care for people that looked at her like she was an equal. They didn't see Clarke Griffin. They didn't see the traitor of the Arc or the Princess or the Commander of the sky people. They didn't see the Mountain slayer. They saw Natshana, they saw Shana. The stray omega who was eager to learn and wore her scarred hands like they bleed even when they were healed.

* * *

 

That night there is a knock on the door and Clarke calls for the alpha too enter. Nia eyes her curiously. "You wanted to speak to me?"

Clarke stares at her, eyes flitting up and down. "My heats coming up."

Nia keeps her face impassive. "Yes."

Clarke clenches her jaw, rolling her eyes. "Say yes or no."

Thin lips twitch, scar quivering across her cheek. "I did not hear a question in there."

Clarke narrows blue eyes and growls low in her throat. "Do you want to take care of my heat or not?"

The queen swallows, all teasing gone. "I am not a good person Natshana."

Clarke meets her eyes head on, chin tilted high. "Neither am I."

The alpha pulls in a deep breath, eyes darkening. "We need rules before we begin."

Clarke stiffens, swallowing. "You fuck me for my heat and we'll be good."

Nia narrows her eyes at the blatant disregard for anything. "If you tell me to stop at any time?"

Clarke lets out a scoff, shaking her head. "Can you stop in the middle of heat sex?"

The woman's grey eyes are steel as she growls. "I am not weak willed."

"Fine, we can stop if we need to. Anything else?" Clarke shifts restlessly.

"How would you like to do this?"

Clarke sighs. Relaxing her shoulders and lets out a breath before pulling in the smell of alpha. Her pheromones spike and Nia groans quietly, clenching her jaw. "My heat hits tonight, we can do this now or later."

"Whichever you wish." Nia speaks stiffly.

Clarke watches the alpha before shaking her head. "You have too much control."

"I will not be some hormone driven alpha." Nia's voice is hard but she stares at Clarke like she's waiting for rejection. "I may be a monster but I won't blame it on my status."

Clarke steps closer, hands trailing up Nia's arms before gripping her neck, pulling her down. Clarke releases a shuddering breath and Nia clenches her fist to keep them from gripping Clarke. "You can still back out Nia."

The queen shudders, opening dark eyes. "As can you."

"I really don't want to." She pull the alpha down for a kiss, fingers tight and Nia is stiff in her hold, arms straight by her side. Clarke releases a sigh. "I'm not going to break." She grabs Nia's wrist and yanks the alpha closer, breathing in the deep musky scent as hands finally grip her hips. Clarke lets out a low grumble of approval, chest vibrating as she pulls the alpha in deeper, slipping her tongue past thin lips. She pulls back slightly, biting at the alpha's lips and Nia growls low in her throat, pressing closer against Clarke. Clarke fingers drag down the woman's back before shoving up and under her shirt, the smell of alpha and omega taints the tent and Clarke presses closer to the queen, feels the bulge at the front of her pant already forming and she presses into the woman harder, rolling against the woman's lower half. 

Nia pulls away with a panting chest, walking Clarke back. Eyes blown but swirling with need even as she show restraint, control. "Are you sure?"

Clarke open dark eyes and glares at Nia. "If you ask me one more time I will find another alpha, one who will fuck me until I can't go anymore."

Nia lets out a low growl, burying her head to Clarke's shoulder and neck, nipping at where the pheromones are strongest and pressing Clarke into the wall of the hut, bracketing her there. "You test every once of control I have."

"Good." Clarke rolls her hips against the alpha, whimpering in need. She can feel her heat simmering in the background but this, this right now is all her and she wants the queen. Her fingers weave in braids and she pulls her in for a needy kiss, deep and consuming. Teeth sharp and insistent as the pull at lips, moving down to the omega's jaw and then her throat. Nia pants against the skin there, pulling in every scent she can as she presses her tongue down to sweep across the collar bones of the blonde. Clarke groans as lips curve around the bone and suck. Her knee comes up to wrap around one of the alpha's hips, pulling her in tight, hands still tangled in braids as she presses the alpha closer, deeper into her neck and chest.

Nia's fingers are tight around the blonde's ribs until the omega shifts, bring her hands closer to her breasts hidden under the jacket. Nia pulls it off hastily as Clarke shoves off against the wall, knee dropping as she shoves Nia back. Hands working on the buckles to the alpha's clothing. "Bed, now."

"Impatient." Nia grumbles, warm fingers wrapping around Clarke's sides again and pull her closer. Her pants are getting tighter by the second and she rolls her hips into the omega, waiting for the hitch in her breath. She is not disappointed and her Natshana shoves her back to the bed. The alpha bites back a growl as she falls onto her back. Clarke hastily pulls her own pants off before grabbing at Nia's. The alpha remains still, letting Clarke control what she wants even though even fiber in her being itches at her to grab the omega, bite and have her until her heat comes and goes. 

Clarke stares at her, blue eyes hooded as the pants fall to the floor. Nia shifts and Clarke grins slightly. "Most alpha's wouldn't stay on their backs that long."

"You are in charge Natshana."

Clarke eyes flash and she climbs on top of Nia's hips, pressing down swiftly. Nia groans deep in her chest at the weight and friction, hands itching to grab at the omega's hips and roll her over. The blonde kisses her, fingers tight on the queen's cheeks and pulling sounds of pleasure from the alpha's throat as she wickedly twists her tongue against Nia's mouth before pulling back, teeth tight around Nia's bottom lip. Any harder and blood would taint their kiss, it makes Nia's chest rumble and her fingers finally find Clarke's hips. They don't move the omega, just grip it tight enough to show her need. Clarke eyes search over her face and Nia gives a sharp nod. The blonde breaths sharply, eyes wide and thick with desire before her teeth press down harder and the taste of blood fills their mouths as Clarke presses in for a more frantic, deeper kiss. Her hands scratch at Nia's skin and her hips begin to rock forward. Nia's hands tighten on Natshana's hip and she gets a nod in response, a thick pant in her ear before she rolls them over, pressing into the omega, rolling her hips slowly until they rest against one another, hips slotted together and chests rising and falling, pressing until the air around them is full of their hot breaths. Hands pull at Nia's back and the alpha takes the hints, rocking against the omega. Each whimper and twitch makes hands tighten on the pillows beside blonde tresses, their eyes stay connected until Nia thrust particularly hard, angling her hips to push the blonde up high on the bed. Clarke releases a deep moan, hands tightening on quivering back muscles before she pulls at the undergarment around the alpha's lower half. "Off, now." Her voice is deep with want and thick with demand.

Nia gives up all pretenses and rips the clothing from her own hips, sliding Clarke's down her thighs and over her ankles to fall to the floor. 

The queen presses at Clarke's entrance, warm and hard, grey eyes almost black as she stills herself, every muscle stiff to remain still. "Sure?" Her words are bitten out through a guttural growl but they still send a flutter to Clarke's chest. 

Clarke wraps her legs around the alpha's hips and pulls her in. Nia groans low, hands fisting the pillows and she presses nipping kisses to Clarke's neck as she begins a slow roll of her hips, taking in the fluttering of Clarke around her, wet and warm. The press of their hips as she presses deeper and deeper with each slow controlled thrust sending a vibrating moan through the blonde's throat.

 _"Fuck."_ Clarke's hands scrabble over tight shoulders, digging into the muscles. "Harder Nia." Nia obeys, picking up the pace and kissing at the parted lips until the blonde pulls away to pant for air as Nia continues twisting her hips just right to hit Clarke where she needs it. The omega is whining and twisting in pleasure below her. Nails dragging lines down the alphas back. Nia trembles as she picks up the pace, nipping and sucking at the omega's chest with each thrust. Her own breathing is growing labored as each thrust draws them deeper and closer to the end. She can feel Clarke fluttering around her, catches the moans with her lips and blue eyes fluttering open before falling shut again. 

Nia can feel her knot forming and she just continues to bring Clarke closer and closer to the edge. Clarke's fingers get tighter and her moan's less like words and more like growls. Suddenly Nia pulls back and out, chest heaving as her muscles tense. Clarke doesn't have time to protest before Nia's fingers are in her and there are the knuckles of her other hand stretching her wide at the entrance. Clarke shudder, twisting and stiffening as her orgasm hits her. She moans loud and deep. Nia twists her fingers with a slow pump as the knuckles of her other hand press into Clarke's entrance more fully and Clarke twitches, moaning louder, her body fooled into thinking she has been knotted. The orgasm rips through her, continuing until Nia stops the gentle thrusting and Clarke whimpers low and deep as Nia pulls out her knuckles, then her fingers. The alpha licks her lips, tasting the fur of the pillow she had bitten into as Clarke's eyes flutter open, chest flushed and heaving.  "You pulled out."

Nia shifts from atop her to roll to her side next to Clarke. "You wish to use me for release, not as the mother of your children, I will not force it upon you."

"Different on Arc." The blondes words are slightly slurred, eyes half lidded as she rolls on her own side to face the alpha. "Omegas are low. Bottom of the chain."

"It is the same on the ground." Nia shifts, bringing the blanket to cover them both. "Omegas are thought to be breeding tools to produce the strongest untainted blood line."

"Then why is the ice tolerant of Omegas?"

"My sister is an omega, I defended her status and her during heat times more than I care to think of." Her fingers, wet from Clarke brush gentle caresses over Clarke's hips, calming the rampant hormones flowing in her blood, soothing the omega in post sex needs. Clarke sighs in content as warm fingers trace invisible line across her body. "I would not wish that on anyone." She pauses, fingers stopping before they continue again, a dark look in grey eyes. "When I fought off the leader of the Ice, he threatened to banish me when I lost and take my sister every night I was gone. I killed him, ripped his throat open with my teeth." Her eyes are dangerous, teeth bared and Clarke clenches with need again at the rampant alpha display. "He thought he could take whatever he wanted because he _led,_ I did not agree. The others fell into line when I killed a few more ignorant alphas."

"Your sister?"

"Mated an alpha of the Mountain Clan."

Clarke leans into the hand, hormones calming with each brush of the alpha's fingers, laced with Clarke's smell. "Why did you kill Costia?"

Nia stiffens before she relaxes, breathing deeply as Clarke presses closer to her. "I am not a good person, I long for more and crave what I can't have. I took Costia from Alexandria because I needed secrets of the Woods Clan." Her fingers do not still but her voice drops low. "I was going to attack and take the trees. Kill the Commander and lead the 12 Clans myself."

"Why?"

"The clans have been under the rule of the Commander's for too long." Nia's voice drops low with anger but the blonde under her hands does no stiffen in fear. "We fall to their every whim because they are _chosen._ I do not believe that. I believe a leader should not be based on tests done to children. She should not have led."

Clarke lets her fingers find the scars across Nia's shoulders and collar bone, raised and pale. "You're practically the same age as her."

"I won my title through hardship and blood." She tilts her chin as proud and high as she can laying in a bed after sex. "The Commanders are children who pass tests for spirits."

Clarke stares at her. "We've all had hardship."

Grey eyes watch Clarke thoughtfully. "That we have Natshana. Rest, we can continue when you wake again." Clarke blinks tired eyes, post coital bliss making her guard fall and she just wants to sleep. She hadn't had a good night sleep in so long and here was this alpha that smelled okay. That smells like her and sex and safety, so her eyes flutter.

She fights off sleep. "You didn't even." Clarke murmurs sleepily.

"I will be fine." Fingers smooth across Clarke's hip that aren't so bony anymore. They brush ribs that still jut with the harsh lines of former hunger. There is a coil of protectiveness that stifles down the urge to fuck until Clarke's full of the queen. A protectiveness that makes the queen want to claim Clarke, dig her teeth in and growl at any who come near the omega. 

* * *

* * *

* * *

 Seven moon cycles later Clarke is following the trail of a deer when she comes across an almost familiar scent. Following it she just about runs into the alpha's chest. Her eyes widen and Bellamy stares at her in shock. "Clarke?"

"Bellamy?" Her heart beats too quick and anxiety blooms in her chest.

He takes a deep breath grin already forming on his face before it falls away. "Did you have a choice?" His eyes are angry and worried.

Clarke smiles, too soft to be anything but loving. "Yes, I chose her after months Bellamy."

"Good. I'd kill her if she forced you to mate."

Clarke takes a quick whiff. "What about you?"

He blushes. "She likes books."

Clarke laughs and Bellamy's grin looks like happiness and relief bottled into one expression as the sound escapes her. "You nerd."

He shifts nervously, swallow as he dips his eyes to his feet before meeting her gaze again. "Who, whose the alpha?"

"A grounder, of the ice." His shoulders relax and she raises her eyebrows at him. "What?"

He blushes, freckles dark against the pink. "Sorry. You said her and I thought Lexa." Clarke's heart doesn't ache as much as it once had at that name. "I know you're your own person but I'd probably want to punch her in the face."

"She did what she had too." Clarke's shoulders are stiff as she shrugs. "We all did."

His dark eyes are so gentle they make her heart ache even more. It dredges up memories of them above Atom, them at the cliff with Charlotte. Against a tree, bloodied and tired. Their eyes meeting in the middle of the drop-ship battle. Sitting by the campfire looking for Finn. A look as Gustus is strung up. A call over the radio and eyes connecting at the edge of the mountain, armies gone. "Are you okay?"

Clarke trembles. "Sometimes."

Bellamy nods, eyes looking up through his thick lashes, just as broken as she is. "Me too."

"What are you doing here?" She tilts her chin to the forest around them.

He grins widely. "Scouting for food and hunting grounds. We've set up sectors, i'm meant to map this one."

"You're getting close to Azgeda territory Bellamy."

"I know where the lines are Clarke." His eyes are bright again.

"You've crossed over one already." The voice is low and Bellamy stiffens, the smell of alpha grating his nose. His fingers itch to his gun but Clarke's face is bright and his shoulders relax.

"He's a friend." Clarke speak with a chin tilted high, eyes on the forest.

The woman steps out, dark hair twisted off of pale skin chalked in white, grey eyes glinting dangerously before she takes a deep breath. "Mated."

Clarke raises her brow and cocks a hip. The alpha tits her own head, dropping one shoulder and biting her cheek as Clarke stares at her. "I can care for myself."

"I know." The alpha keeps her chin high, eyes on Clarke, body angled to her but her ears on the alpha.

Bellamy grins at Clarke, tilting his head to the side as he meet cool grey-eyes. "I'm Bellamy."

Sharp eyes find him. "The one from the drop-ship."

"Clarke told you."

Lips twitch and eyes appraise over him. "The rebel king."

Bellamy blushes, rubbing at the back of his neck and barely keeping a glare from Clarke. "She was the princess."

The alpha grins, teeth wide and sharp. "She is a queen now." She stalks close to Bellamy, holding her arm out. "I am Nia, Queen of the Ice, Rebel King."

Bellamy chokes on air, eyeing Clarke before turning back to the Ice Queen. "Shit."

"You aren't the only alpha to say that in my presence."

"Nia." Clarke's voice is amused yet sharp.

Nia sniffs the air again. "He is a befitting King, strong shoulders. Mated."

Blue eyes dance with mirth and the omega fights the smile twitching at her lips. "Nia."

Grey eyes spark in amusement as she moves her eyes from her mate to the mated alpha. "I apologize Natshana, Rebel King."

Bellamy huffs, rolling his eyes to the side.  "I thought that name left with Murphy."

Clarke grins at him cheekily, coming to stand next to Nia, bodies pressed tightly together. She opens her mouth to speak when Bellamy's radio goes off. "Hey Bells and Whistles, you get the perimeter checked yet? Can't idle the truck much longer."

Bellamy watches as happiness and fear creeps into blue eyes. His shoulders relax and his lips twist into a bittersweet smile. "Yeah Boom Box, i'm on my way back."

"Really?" Clarke's heart clenches at the familiar sarcastic drawl of the mechanic's voice.  "Cuz that third beacon isn't set up yet."

Bellamy lets out a chuffing laugh, rolling his eyes to the sky. "Almost done Reyes."

"I need to tell your mate you got a side girl?" There is a hint of teasing in an almost false stern tone.

Bellamy scowls. "I'll tell Abby you fucked Jackson."

There's the sound of something crashing over the radio and Bellamy smirks at Raven's screech. "He's a puppy!"

"You lie I lie."

"Float you alpha man." Raven voice is tinged in amusement. "Get that third beacon set up, it's not that hard."

He rolls his eyes and puts the radio away. Clarke laughs, Nia's hand a comfortable weight on her hip. "Nothing changes."

Dark eyes flicker to the forest around them before finding Clarke, his smile is softer than she remembers. "Some things do, but usually for the better." He steps closer. "I get a hug Clarke?"

Clarke smiles. "You'll smell like an omega."

Bellamy rolls his eyes, his eyes dancing like so long ago. "You're mated."

She steps close, Nia watching them with confused eyes. Clarke grips Bellamy tight, hands forcing creases in his jacket. "It was good seeing you."

Bellamy buries his chin into her shoulder, pulling in a deep breath. "Raven will be pissed if she ever hears about this."

"I'm not ready." Her voice cracks and Bellamy can feel his heart ache at the pain there, watches as Nia twitches with the urge to step closer and offer her mate comfort. Instead she lets Bellamy squeeze her tighter.

"I know." 

Clarke swallows thickly, fingers tightening even further on him. "I don't kno-."

"I know Clarke." He releases her, squeezing her shoulders tightly. "May we meet again."

Clarke's lips twitch in a broken smile. "May we meet again." Bellamy steps back with tears in his eyes before he begins his trek through the forest once again, Nia comes to fold her arms around Clarke's waist, squeezing it as they watch the shadows swallow the alpha.


	5. Caged

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A different take on the Arc landing sooner than in the show. Just an idea, more parts/chapter may or may not come later.

100 faces glare back at the Chancellor and his council. Faces forever frozen in defiant scowls on screen. "These one hundred minors have broken the law, capital punishment is the fee for any crime." Dark eyes flicker to his council members, their face smooth and stonic or pinched in worry. "Since they are minors they fall under the law of Capital Punishment." His hands clasp behind his back. "We cannot keep them here, they take up valuable resources and more space than they are worth."

Marcus Kane leans forward, moving his hand through his hair before he clasps his hands together across the table top. "What do you suggest Chancellor Jaha?"

A sharp gaze flickers to Kane and Jaha flares his nostrils before calming. "I have been speaking with the mountain, they have more than enough room to sustain them."

Kane runs his tongue across his teeth. "And when they come of age?"

Jaha keeps his gaze impassive as he walks around the room. "They can be retried for their crimes or remain in the mountain."

Kane looks up with narrowed eyes, tilting his chin cautiously up. "Any crime is punishable by death, that does not change because of retrial."

Jaha sighs low in his chest. "Then they will remain in the mountain."

Another council member leans forward precariously. "Why would the mountain take them?"

"They need more workers, skilled workers." He brings up one of the prisoners dossier. "Each minor has something to offer, some of them our smartest civilians."

The same man shakes his head, motioning to the hundred faces behind their Chancellor. "Then why send the smartest ones away?"

"They all broke the law, I will not _bend_ it for them." He pulls down something from the scene onto his personal tablet. "They will find use at the mountain."

A woman furrows her brow in suspicion. "So we are rid of the prisoners and the mountain gains workers, what else is there to this deal?"

"We work a trade route." He throws the electronic map onto the screen, five different trails marked in varying color. "They will send us more guns to keep the grounders at bay and we will give them necessities. The first being a group of doctors, they are in need of assistance sometime soon."

A thin man straightens his scarf in the back of the room as he speaks. "And the grounders?"

"Have not been forth coming with peace." Jaha tilts his chin high as he stands tall in front of them, the screen behind him still full of 100 children he will send away. "We will defend ourselves when needed, but we will not declare war. Lines will be drawn but we will not hide like cowards."

Kane narrows his eyes, crossing his ankles below the table. "Are the families allowed to say goodbye?"

"It is not advised, families will be informed that the children will remain alive but that is it. It would cause too much chaos." His dark eyes search the room. "Is that all the questions?" He receives no words. "Good, dismissed, the guards will gather the prisoners at 0600 tomorrow. Abby I need your assistance, stay behind."

She doesn't look at the other members as she falls behind, nodding her head. "Of course."

Everyone leaves, Kane throwing a cautious expression to the two remaining members. "Do you still have the wrist band from a few years ago?"

Abby pauses before nodding her head, searching her memory of the inventory after the crash into earth. "Yes, in storage."

"Get them, we're to equip the prisoners with them until they arrive at the mountain." He marks notes on his pad, not bothering to look at his most trusted adviser.

"Why?"

"Monitor vital signs as well as how many make it to the mountain."

She stiffens, voice dropping in worry. "Why?"

"I fear the grounders may interfere." He tweaks a few of the trade routes with his back turned to her. "There will be tracking devices installed in them."

Abby nods, eyes focusing on her daughter's face across from her. "I'll get Sinclair to add those, shouldn't take but four hours."

"Good, get to work."

"Of course." Abby leaves, her steps calculated.

"Abby." Thelonius voice is low and the woman cocks her head to the side, hand on the door. "Since you are a council member you can help send off the prisoners tomorrow, equip them with their wrist bands."

"Of course." Her eyes water. "Thank you."

The woman makes her way to the medical ward, ducking through metallic hallways that flow with cold air. She sits against the corner, counting supplies and pressing a small button on the wall. Minutes later, done with part of the inventory Abby locks the door and sits down as the grate above her head opens. Down it drop two people, the man is dressed in a janitors uniform, dark hair slicked back and eyes too hard on a twenty-three year old face. The girl, no more than eighteen raises her brow. "You called?"

Abby's face hardens. "They're moving them to the mountain."

The girl grips a metal raven that hangs from her neck. "Shit, when?"

Abby swallows, throat too tight. "0600 tomorrow."

The man clenches his jaw. "How do we stop it?"

"You don't." he shakes her head. "Both of you would be floated before the cuffs were even on them."

Dark eyes find Abby's searching for answers. "What's the plan then Doc?"

Abby pulls out the one of the wrist bands. "They're putting the bands on them, tracking devises."

The girl steps forward, pulling at the gloves on her hands. "I'll disable them."

"Not in here you won't." There is a hint of desperation in her words. "He has Sinclair on it Raven."

The man steps closer, voice gruff with anger. "What is your plan?"

"I'll help you two get out, underground exits. You'll follow behind the group, help them escape and get the bands off." She pauses. "You'll both be traitors after that, fugitives and sentenced to death if you come back."

"We won't come back then." The dark skinned girl steps closer, oil smudged across her brow. "They'll kill you too."

"They won't find me." Abby fingers the ring hanging around her neck. "Thelonius has gone crazed with power. Sentencing them to the outside could tip the scales in our favor, we just need to bide our time."

Running a hand through slick hair the mans hakes his head. "Who's with you on this?"

"I can't tell you that Bellamy." She meets his eyes head on, notices the same pain that clouds her own eyes. "But this sets things into motion much sooner than expected."

He nods, jaw tight. "Well get them out and safe."

"How exactly do we survive the grounders?" Raven steps close, eyes flickering from Bellamy to Abby. "They won't take kindly to us being in their territory. We won't be armed either."

"I haven't figured that out yet. Once Thelonious believes you all to be dead, once the wrist bands are disabled he won't hunt you guys." She sighs, rubbing at her forehead. "Though he will try to find you as will the mountain for skewing their plans if he figures out what you did."

Raven shakes her head. "You don't know that."

"It's a possibility." Abby rubs at tired eyes, dropping the wrist band back into its box. "Get some sleep, meet me at fifteen after 0600, i'll send you guys out to catch up to them. Jaha will be too distracted to notice a missing mechanic and janitor that early."

Bellamy jerks his chin. "Just us?"

Abby nods, eyes broken with grief. "Miller will be supplying you with guns."

Bellamy clenches his fist, shaking his head. "They'll kill him."

"They won't find out."

Bellamy scoffs. "They do inventory."

Abby shakes her head, meeting Raven's gaze before she turns back to Bellamy. "There are black markets hidden throughout this place, he'll be fine."

"Thank you." Bellamy's voice cracks.

Abby smiles slightly, lips trembling. "Tell my daughter I love her, and i'm sorry."

"Will do Doc." Raven grips Abby's shoulder. "We gotta go. Too long and they'll be suspicious."

"Remember the time, behind the herb station."

* * *

* * *

Fifty-one doors beep as they open and all the prisoners wake in confusion, backing into the wall or trying to run past the guards. Clarke Griffin shoves against one guard and slips under another's arm, running out into the hall to see her prison-mates, people she had no contact with in three years in lock up. They scramble and some scream only to be silenced by guns to their head. Clarke stops as her mother comes into view. "Mom? They're killing us? Making room for everyone else."

"No, they're taking you outside the walls." She cradles her face. "To the mountain. You'll be safe there."

Clarke shakes her head desperately. "No, mom we'll die. They'll kill us." 

Abby's hand tighten to set the wrist band across her daughters too thin wrist. "This bracelet will let me know your alive, if anyone kills you i'll raise hell." She presses a kiss to her daughters cheek whispering in her ear. "Trust Raven." The words are barely heard and Clarke swallows and hisses as the thing cuts into her wrist with a twist of her mothers fingers. 

Clarke searches her mothers face before ducking her head down. "I love you mom."

"I love you sweetie." She presses another kiss to her face. "Be safe."

They lead the blonde away and Abby closes her eyes before opening them slowly. She catches Jaha's across the room, watching as they place his son by her daughter. The man offers her a nod and she watches as they lead the hundred kids to the gates. Most are bound together in a two line formation. Twenty guards surround them, guns drawn and chest still as the first gate opens. None of the prisoners struggle, eyes too nervous as the first gate closes behind them and the second opens in front of them. "They'll be fine. I must get to the command center."

"I'll be there in a second." She wipes at her face and Thelonious' face softens.

His hand tightens on her shoulder. "We did what was right. Take all the time you need."

Abby waits until she is alone before heading to the herb station, eyes sparking dangerously. The windows are dark and she slips behind it. Three figures wait for her there. "Sargent Miller."

"Councilor Griffin."

She eyes the other two, dressed in dark colors, Bellamy Blake is tucked into a dark jacket, the elbows rubbed thin. The only color on the mechanic is the dark red bomber jacket she wears, covered by a thin black cloak and a thick back pack. "You packed?"

The girl smirks. "Course I did, we ready?"

Abby nods, turning her head to her companion. "Yes, you have the guns?" Miller thrusts two automatics at the soon to be fugitives. 

"I got two autos and four pistols."

Raven raises her eyes at the man. "Compensating much?"

The guard grunts. "You'll need them out there, Miller's trained with a pistol and auto. Give him one if you can. Trust his judgment on who to give the rest too."

"Got it." Bellamy tucks the two pistols away as does Raven. "Any ammo?"

The man hands a heavy side pack to the former guard turned janitor. "All I could get."

"More than enough." Bellamy stares down at the weapons that would save them out there. "What you'd trade at the black market?"

"Nothing that concerns you. They won't tell."

Bellamy grips the man's forearm before stepping back and speaking lowly. "Good. We ready now?"

"Go, be safe." She presses a map into their hands, squeezing Raven's shoulder and nodding to Bellamy. "The trail they take is on there, one pit-stop along the way. Your best bet it to get them there, halfway between the mountain and Arcadia, too far for help to get there soon."

Bellamy's eyes are shining with tears, voice thick. "Thank you."

"No, thank you guys." Abby shoves at their shoulders, watching the sun peak slowly as Sargent Miller helps them through the hidden exit. "Go now, I've got to get back."

* * *

They come upon them easily and follow them for six hours before they stop. The prisoners complain but remain tied together. The guards offer them no water or food and both the newly turned fugitives clench their jaws. The guards slacken after thirty minute break, joking around as they shove the prisoners forward to get them moving again, radioing in that they're moving out again. That is their first mistake. An arrow embeds itself in the leader's head and Bellamy reacts, pulling his gun out and shooting two of the guards that are turning to the forest. He steps out of the bushes, voice loud. "GET DOWN OCTAVIA!" His sister looks up and nods, rolling to the side and forcing a few of the others to stumble. The rest follow her, ducking their heads as Raven shakes her head and grabs her gun, aiming at the other guards before she rolls her eyes and runs forward, breaking once man's nose as she jams the gun in his face. "Raven!"

  
"Can't shoot worth shit Blake." The mechanic rolls, ducking down beside the prisoners and pulling out a knife, she pulls out three more knives from her pockets. "Cut loose but don't run, they have trackers on you and they'll kill you first chance they get. Take down as many as you can."

That said the mechanic tackles a guard as another arrow slams into a guard aiming at Bellamy's head. Easily the remaining guards fall and Bellamy gathers their weapons, stuffing them into his bag and eyeing the forest. He pulls Octavia to her feet. "O." His eyes are bright with tears as he stares at her.

She pulls him in for a tight hug, squeezing him as hard as she can as his hand comes to cradle the back of her head. "Bell, what are you doing here?"

He pulls back with a watery grin. "Couldn't let them take you anywhere without me."

Her eyes search the ground, there's blood on her face from where she sliced open a guards throat and her brows furrows as she steps back from him. "What do we do now?"

There is the thump of an arrow embedding in a guard that had stood with his gun raised at Bellamy. Everyone jumps and Bellamy grits his teeth.  "COME OUT!"

A noise sounds form the tree. "Why did you kill your own people?"

Bellamy snarls, swinging his gun around, eyes searching the forest as everyone cuts free of the ropes. "They aren't my people."

Another voice sounds behind the man and the hundred stiffen, continue to cut their bonds away. The voice is feminine and low. "So they took your people then?"

Bellamy's hands clench across the gun. "Show yourself."

"Bell, calm down." Octavia grabs his arm as Miller, pulling his beanie on his head, grabs a gun and slings it on his shoulder. "Half the guards have arrows in their heads, they helped us."

He clenches his jaw, crowding closer to her like he can shield her from any attacks. "Why?"

She shrugs, looking to the trees. "I don't know."

"Clam down." Clarke steps close, standing near Raven. "Any wrong moves and an arrow could be in your head." Wells stands beside her, head bleeding from where he headbutted a guard.

Raven scoffs, pulling things out of her bag. "If you guys are done talking I need to get the wrist bands off before they track you guys."

Clarke meets her gaze. "How long?"

Raven holds a screw driver in her mouth as she continues to rummage through the bag. "I just need to short circuit a few to set them all off."

"Use mine." Octavia holds out her arm and the mechanic takes it, a young Asian boy stepping closer.

"I can help." His eyes are earnest, shoulders thin.

Bellamy nods, face twisted in anger. "Good, disconnect them."

Monty bends down to look at Raven's tools, eyeing the wristbands as he looks over Octavia's wrist, touching the metal gently. "A good enough current should fry them."

Clarke steps close, moving her bracelet around as she speaks, eyeing the dead guards. "Wait, they'll look in this spot, expect dead bodies. They'll know we're alive."

Raven shakes her head, waving one of her pliers around. "Where the hell do we end them then?"

"There's a cliff no to far, a river below it." The voice is quiet from the trees and the hundred teens stiffen like they had forgot they were up there. "They could think you died there."

Bellamy clenches his jaw. "Why should we trust you?"

Raven grunts low in her throat, throwing something at Bellamy. "It's on the map Shooter. Shut up and lets go."

Bellamy scowls, jaw too tight, hands clenched around his fingers as Miller hands out guns. One to a girl with a bandanna around her forehead and braids and another girl with three long thick braids. "We can't trust them."

Clarke tilts her chin to the guards. "No, but they're the least of our problems now."

Miller toes one of the guards legs. "Leave the bodies here?"

"The paktraka will get them soon enough." A large man drops from the trees, the only hair is a thin strip down his head. Tattoos climb up his neck and arms, he nods to Octavia, eyes taking in the fire in her own. "Follow me."

Bellamy stiffens, hand tight on his gun. "Where's the other one?"

"The trees, she does not trust easily."

Wells steps close, tilting his head to the side as he takes a cloth from Clarke to press into his bleeding head. "You trust us already?"

"No." His dark eyes, even darker under the black paint, flicker to the bodies around them. "But the people who chained you are heartless."

Octavia snorts. "Don't have to tell us twice." She pulls in a deep breath, rotating her shoulders. "I never knew how good air could smell." 

The hundred former prisoners follow after the grounder, taking in the sun and the lack of walls. A boy with goggles shoves the Asian boy. "Listen Monty."

He grins widely and presses his shoulder into the boy with goggles. "No hum, no radio buzz." 

"Weird huh?"

Octavia grins throws her arms wide as she jumps down from a tree stump. "We're free bitches!"

They get loud shouts and whoops of joy. "Not yet." Clarke speaks from beside Bellamy. "Not until we get these wrist bands off and as far away from Mount Weather and Arcadia as we can."

A boy drops from the trees, hair fluttering past his ears. "Have a little fun Princess, first time I've been free in seven months." He grins at her. "Enjoy the sunshine."

Before she can retort the boy is shoved from the side. "I don't get a hello?" Raven's eyebrow is raised and the boy pulls her into a tight hug, causing her to laugh.

He tugs at her ponytail with a wide grin. "Was waiting for you to find me, figured you'd do your thing."

She grins, shoving his shoulder so they can walk side by side. "My thing?"

He throws an arm over her shoulder. "The one where you spot me and run to me like in the movies."

"Please lover boy, we all know that would be you." She leans heavily into his side. "I missed you Finn."

"Missed you too." He sets his head down on hers. "Seven months is too long without you."

Octavia runs ahead of them all, swinging around trees and jumping over logs. Her grin is wide and happy. Bellamy watching her with relief, worry and happiness as his hands hold the gun loosely. The grounder watches Octavia as well, head tilted to the side as her hair stick to the guard's blood on her throat.

Wells walks beside Clarke and the blonde eyes him. "What the hell are you doing here with us?"

He shrugs, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Heard my father was sending you to the mountain." He shrugs. "I couldn't let you go alone."

She scoffs. "I'm not alone."

"You know what I mean." His eyes find hers. "I'm sorry." She stiffens, swallowing at the pain and guilt in his eyes. "I should have told you sooner."

She clenches her jaw. "You let me hate you for two years."

"What are best friends for?" He shrugs, face too soft and caring. "Have you forgiven your mom yet?"

Clarke stiffens. "No." He steps slightly closer to her and offers a small smile, one reminiscent of their childhood. "I'll never see her again." Clarke huffs, clenching her jaw.

Wells smiles, knocking his shoulder into Clarke's. "There's more to this than just an escape. Your mom, Bellamy and Raven aren't the only ones rebelling. Give it time."

Clarke shakes her head, eyeing the hundred teenagers around them. "And while my mom's fighting a civil war from the inside what do I do?"

"What you do best." He pulls in a deep breath, watching the sun dance across Clarke's hair. "Break laws and cause chaos. Do what's best for our people." He bumps her shoulder again. "You always have, we'll figure out a plan once the wrist bands are off."

Clarke stares down at the wristbands before looking at the map in Bellamy's hand. "They were sending us to the mountain for a reason Wells."

"All of you were taking up space and resources that they needed." He turns his head away, lips trembling with rage. "My father made the decision to send you away, to make a deal with the mountain."

Clarke stops, turning to face him as the others ran around past Clarke, some bumping into her. "What was that deal Wells?"

"They send them a hundred workers and some doctors and Arcadia gets weapons and some more food." He licks his lips. "The grounders mess with the harvest and so does the weather. We were running low on everything."

"We're all fugitives now." Clarke stares at the youngest of them all, a small girl that sends malicious glares Wells way. "The Arc will kill us or drop us in Mount Weather if they find us."

The grounder walks close to her, eyes sweeping the forest as he falls back, Bellamy's eyes on him. "We're going to Polis after you trackers are off. The Commander will want to meet you."

Bellamy falls back as well, glaring at the large man. "Why?"

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Finn speaks up from behind them, hand twisting Raven's hair playfully. "We're prisoners of Arcadia, enemies to the city. Grounders hate Mount Weather and Arcadia."

The man nods, cloth thick on his shoulders as he rotates one. "You will have valuable information."

"We will not help you wipe out our people." Clare steps close to him, hands clenching.

Wells sides up next to her and the hundred teens look around nervously, shifting at the tension in the air as everyone stops. "You said there will be a rebellion." He tilts his chin high, eyes dark even under the paint across his eyes. "Our needs align. The Commander is smart, she will see it as well. There doesn't need to be more death."

A shadow drops from the tree. "Anya will not share your views, nor Indra." There is a scar across the woman's left eye and tattoos etched into her shoulder.

Lincoln doesn't show any surprise but many of the former prisoners jump. "No, but the Commander will Echo."

The woman snorts, eyeing the hundred prisoners and their two fugitives. "Pray that she does, if not you're bringing a hundred goufa to their slaughter."

Some of them shift nervously and Bellamy steps close. "We're leaving once the wrist bands are off."

The woman snorts again. "No, you're not. You'll die within three nights." She steps close to him. "You are all weak, living inside walls for too long."

The other grounder grunts at her, shaking his head before continuing to lead them to the edge. He nods his chin at Raven and the mechanic steps forward, Monty beside her. "Okay, this may hurt so don't cry too loud." She grabs a small battery, grinning at Octavia. "Still volunteering Pocahontas?"

Bellamy grabs his sister's shoulder but the girl shrugs it off. "Yeah." She grins at Raven, thrusting her wrist out. "Get it off."

Raven connects some things to it. "It should fry them periodically based on circuits, from the specs there should be three different currents. Fry one of each." She looks up, tossing something at Monty. "Grab current B, Griffin had it." 

Monty nods and Clarke holds her wrist out and the two girls hiss as there is a sharp spark and sting of pain. Sixty others jerk in surprise as the wristbands spark into their flesh. Raven grabs Finn's wrist. "Ready tree walker?"

He grins. "Always Space walker."

She shakes her head and sends a current into his wrist band. The remaining bands spark before their power dies. "Pry the off now, Sinclair might have placed a back up tracker in some of them." She grips Finn's wrist band and it falls away easily under her grip, she frowns as she chucks it over the edge. 

Finn laughs, pulling her to her feet. "Don't cry too much, it's just tech."

"Just tech." Ravens scowls, shaking her head and shoving Finn's shoulder. "There's so much I could do with those things."

"Do I need to give you a moment?" His eyes are bright and Raven rolls her own.

"Float you Finn."

He laughs and they watch as the others throw their wrist bands over the edge. He leans into her side. "What now?"

Raven snorts again, shoving her tools into her bag. "Now we follow mister dark and mysterious I suppose."

"No, we'll find our own way." Bellamy stands tall, eyes dangerous.

Echo shakes her head at him, sneering at the man. "You'll die sooner or later sky boy."

His fingers tighten on his gun and he steps closer. "We'll be fine."

Wells steps forward, hands held up in a calming manner. "We should go with them."

Bellamy scowls and Murphy clambers forward, shoving Wells back. "You and your precious princess can go with them."

Bellamy glares at Wells, pulling Murphy back. "My sister and I are leaving."

"No." Octavia tilts her chin high. "I'm going with them."

"O."

"No Bell, I have been caged most of my life." She takes a step away from him into the open, all eyes on her. "All of us have. I am _done_ with this. I'm not running to hide away in some forest. I'm going with them to Polis." Her green eyes spark.

Bellamy clenches his jaw letting out a rough sigh. "O, please, I did this to protect you."

"I don't need your protection." She grips one of the batons from the guards they had taken. "I am going with them."

He throws his hand wide. "They could kill you!"

"The Arc could kill me! The mountain could kill me!" Her chest heaves. "i'd rather _die_ out here than in a cage somewhere." Her eyes find the others, searching a hundred faces. "Haven't we been imprisoned long enough? Don't let your fear cage you too."

Wells nods his head to the grounder. "They could help with the rebellion. They have numbers."

One of the boys shifts in the back of the crowd, speaking lowly. "They could kill our people."

Murphy laughs high and angry, hair falling in his face. "They aren't _our_ people anymore."

Wells ignores him, plowing forward. "They could do it now without our help. If we go with them we can at least know of the dangerous plan, prevent them. Help them come up with different plans that don't involve killing the innocent."

Clarke grabs Well's wrist, squeezing it as she steps close. "Our best chance at survival is to follow the grounders, none of us has been outside the walls in too long. I haven't step foot on the ground except for now." Clarke looks around. "I know most of you have been stuck in lock up since we landed, just like me. Do you really think we can make it on our own?" Eyes drop to the ground and fists clench but they listen. "Our best chance and the best chance at the survival of our people is to go with them."


	6. Werewolf au Raven x Clarke

Raven walks out into the alley behind the mechanic shop spinning her keys and spots dead in her tracks when she spots blonde hair and dirty bare skin. Her face twists with worry and she steps closer. "Clarke?"

The lump groans and slowly blue eyes flutter open. There is dirt cakes on every inch of the blonde, twigs in her hair and a metallic taste in her mouth as she rolls to her knees shakily. "Raven?"

 _"Fuck,_ what happened to you?" Raven yanks off her jacket and throws it over the blonde's shoulders as she kneels down next to her, hands hovering. "You were at the mountains yesterday. A fucking five hour drive. What happened?"

The blonde pulls the jacket tighter around her, furrowing her brow as dirty nails dig into leather. "I don't. I don't know." Images flash in her mind, a need a want. The smell of motor oil. Fear deep in her gut and her left ribs ache.

"Fuck." Raven helps her roommate up, arm slipped around her back to keep her steady. "We should call the police."

Clarke stiffens, something eating at her stomach. It lurches with fear at the mention of police and she shakes her head frantically. _"No._ No. I'm fine."

"You're fine?!" Raven's hand tightens on a jacket covered hip and dark eyes flash with fury. "You're naked behind the mechanic shop without any memory."

"I think I may have been slightly drunk." Clarke furrows her brow shaking her head at the hazy images in her brain. "Or high. I have flashbacks of last night. Just. I wanted to be home." She shrugs dirt caked shoulders. "I must have run here."

Raven stares at her incredulously. "Naked?"

Clarke swallows and winces, remembering the burning of her muscles. "I got hot."

"You got hot?" Raven tones sarcastically before she sighs in defeat. "Whatever, it's fine if you don't want the police." She slips an arm around the blonde, nervously looking over her roommate over for injuries unable to see any under the dirt. "Just. Just tell me if you need anything."

* * *

Almost a month passes since that night. Twenty days of vetting questions and headaches from her teachers and friends. Twenty days of Clarke waking up and doing things she shouldn't be able to do, lifting the bed like it was nothing when her pencil rolled under it. Nights spent pressing her face into her pillow and struggling to sleep with all the smells filling the apartment. Week-old cheese behind the fridge, Raven's dirty socks stuck behind the washer. Hours spent struggling to study, ears ringing and hands fisted as conversations and noise bombard her. She lasts twenty days before she corners Raven in their apartment, hands clasped together in front of her stomach.

Raven looks up with a half smile from her homework, wrench loose in her hand. "What's up Doc?"

Clarke swallows before squaring her shoulders. "I'm a werewolf."

 Raven wipes her fingers against her pant leg to clean them of the grease as she grins. "Your legs do get pretty hairy but come on Clarke quit joking."

Clarke swallows, licking her lips before squaring her shoulders, listening to the steady beat of Raven's heart as her own jumps. "It happened Christmas break, the night I was hiking at the mountain with Bellamy and Octavia, before I showed up naked outside the place you were working." Raven looks skeptic, shifting to sit up straight and Clarke swallows nervously before breathing in deeply. "You had sex with John Belede an hour ago, you had Doritos for lunch and your clothes are the ones you wore yesterday to your engineering class. You spilled a solvent on them." 

Raven furrows her brow, shifting in her seat and staring at her roommate of three years. "Okay, that's in stalker territory." Clarke lifts up her shirt without preamble, stark white scars form the shape of a horrid and jagged bite mark across her ribs that Raven hadn't seen the night of the mountain. Raven stiffens, staring at the blonde, eyes dark with worry, heart hammering away in her chest.

Clarke swallows, hands shaking. "I can smell it on you Raven. I can smell your apprehension and fear." Clarke drops the shirt, hand shaking as she runs them through her hair. "Fuck. I'm sorry." Clarke takes a few steps back, almost tripping over her feet. Raven's heart beat is too loud in her ears and her scent to strong as Clarke's eyes flash gold.

Raven stands suddenly, reaching for Clarke. "Shit no, I'm not scared of you." She steps closer, face twisted in confusion. "Just. Holy shit." She shakes her head, pulling in a deep breath before sighing. "Does that mean super hearing?"

Clarke nods stiffly, muscle ready to spring into action. To run. "Yes."

Raven wrinkles her nose, thinking of a romp ten days ago just in the living room. "You hear me and Daisy go at it?" Clarke looks up with wary eyes before nodding. Raven snorts. "Yikes. Sorry you had to hear that." She flashes Clarke a grin and Clarke relaxes, everything was going to be alright.

* * *

The months of university bleed together. Nights spent covering for Clarke during a full moon turned into 'girl nights' to everyone else. Three nights a month where Clarke and Raven would be MIA. Days spent shoving boys with too much axe away from Clarke just to spare her nose led to Raven and Clarke walking together more on campus.

Clarke drops down silently beside Raven, being sure to stay downwind of the smelly food court and the improv basketball practice to her right. "Everyone's convinced we're dating."

Raven looks up in confusion from the wires in her hand. "I know we're hot, but why?"

Clarke winces, shifting to let her nose brush her collar, the smell of the sweaty boys shifting in the wind. "Apparently three girl nights a month means three nights of nonstop sex."

There's a dangerous gleam in Raven's eyes as her lips twitch. "So they think we're banging on the nights you go tromping through the forest?"

Clarke frown's shoving at Raven's shoulder. "O also said we act like a couple now."

Raven shrugs, untangling her fingers from the wires on her lap. "You do sit closer to me than normal." She tilts her head to the side. "And we walk everywhere together."

Clarke frowns, wincing as the wind shifts again. "You smell better than half the population here, I can't hep not wanting to get a whiff of jock itch number 2."

Raven laughs, snorting loud enough to gain some curious eyes before they turn away. "I'm kidding pup, calm down." Raven leans against her shoulder more fully and they sit in silence for a bit, enjoying the small bit of warmth while they can before Raven stiffens. "Does this mean I cant have sex anymore?" Her eyes are wide with apprehension. "Cuz that might be a deal breaker Griffin. That's my stress relief."

Clarke shakes her head, rolling her eyes. "It's not like we're dating, people assumed." She shrugs, jostling Raven's shoulder with her own. "Do what ever you want."

Raven turns to relax back onto the grass, throwing her head in Clarke's lap as she stuffs the wire back in its box "Awesome, i'll still be there for you on the moon but I get my nights."

Clarke frowns, stretching her legs out to give Raven more room. "You're not my keeper Raven." 

Raven pinches at Clarke's thigh. "No but i'm your friend, hell i'm your best friend now." Her eyes dance as they find Clarke's. _"Alpha_ of the pack." Clarke shakes her head and Raven grins widely as Clarke jostles Raven's head with her thighs. "I don't follow people Pup, I lead." 

Clarke snorts, tilting her head to let the sun hit her face as she leans back on her hands. "No you do whatever you want and make everyone else go along with it. 

The mechanic grunts low in her throat. "Isn't that what leading is?" 

Clarke wrinkles her nose, huffing and jostling her thighs again. "Fuck off."

Raven knocks her head back against Clarke's thighs and grins salaciously at the blonde. "Not by my self but I will later."

"You're disgusting." There is laughter in her chest as she shoves against Raven's shoulder with one of her hands.

Raven closes her eyes, grinning widely as she burrows deeper to get more comfortable, the sun warm against her skin. "You love me."

Clarke looks down with too soft eyes, whispering. "Yeah,"

* * *

Clarke sneezes as one of the biology undergrads bumps into her, spilling a powder in the air that cause Clarke to sneeze. The boy shoves her away with a glare, snapping the lid back on the container and stalking down the hallway without a look back. Clarke rolls her eyes and heads to her class, her fingers itch and they twitch but she ignores them until her teeth starts to itch and throb as well. Her nose burns and she stands up abruptly and leaves the class with wobbly steps. Her ears are ringing with too many sounds, nose filled with too many smells and everything burns. It's so much like the first moon that fear eats at her stomach. She stumbles her way into one of the empty old study rooms and falls into the far corner, pulling out her phone she dials a familiar number. "I need you." Her words are thick and guttural, hands clenching the phone with too long claws. 

Raven bolts upright, looking around her class room before shaking her head and running out of it. Phone cradled in her ear and backpack left behind. The teacher calls after her but she is already gone, door slamming shut behind her retreating form. "Where are you?"

"The science building." Clarke pants out, eyes squeezed shut, heaving breath after breath like it hurts. "I can't. _Something's_ wrong."

"I'm on my way." Raven races over with swift steps, feet pounding the pavement as she runs full force to the building. She finds Clarke hidden in the back room like she said. Empty. Her entire frame is shaking and Raven shuts the door, clicking the lock shut. Bright gold eyes flash up to bore into Raven with a feral fear and sharp teeth are bared at the intruder. Claws grip into a palm hard enough to draw blood as Clarke's lips tremble before she pulls in a quick breath and relaxes.

 _"Raven."_ She begs and her eyes are scared and broken. Raven stumbles to kneel beside the girl, hands hovering before gripping Clarke's shoulder gently, thumbs rubbing soothing circles as she struggles to help Clarke. The blonde lunges with a deep growl, burying her face into Raven's neck. The mechanic doesn't stiffen, she falls back onto her butt with a grunt at the strength behind the blonde. She scoots back until she is leaning against the wall with Clarke burying her nose into Raven's throat, breathing deeply. Pulling in the familiar smell of oil and steel. Her body is hot and everything feels wrong, the world too sharp and she focuses on Raven's smell. On her heart beat and the way it beats against her claws and up her fingertips.

Raven presses her hand into Clarke's neck, pulling the girl further in. "Just breathe." And Clarke does, pulling in long lungfuls of the mechanic's smell. The girl smells like home should. And Clarke feels her own scent emitting out and pressing into Raven. Surrounding the room for a reason unknown to the wolf and her companion as she struggles to calm down.

* * *

**_Five years Later_ **

Raven stumbles as they walk upfront to pay their tab when O's new boyfriend shows up to pick her up. He pays the tab without hesitation before he sniffs the air and his muscles tense and Raven swears his eyes flash before he smiles at her calmly. She shakes it off blinking her eyes up at him. The night is closing, time for them to leave and the man smiles at her kindly so Raven sticks her arm out. "Can't say i'm surprised you're as hot as you are." She looks him up and down. "Plus you picked up the tab, Octavia has good taste."

The man laughs softly and shakes her hand swiftly before pulling back and leading them outside. "It was a pleasure to meet you Raven. Get home safe." 

Raven throws her hand up to call a cab. "Please those of the night shall fear me!" She slips into a cab with a slight stumble and Octavia laughs quietly, leaning into Lincoln side as they walk home.

When Raven gets home she locks the door behind her and throws her purse on the side able. Chucking off her shoes she stumbles, looking up at the unmistakable sound of a mug breaking against the hardwood. Clarke barrels into the room, sniffing at the air. Her eyes flash gold and too quick for a tipsy Raven to realize she is in her space. Raven smiles lazily at her. "Hey pup, whats up."

"You smell like wolf." Clarke's bares her teeth as she pulls in another breath with too bright eyes. "Another wolf." She zero's in on Raven's hand and grabs it. Her nose almost touches it and she sniffs softly before a loud rumble sounds in her chest. Raven lets out a sigh at the sound, the blonde was close to full moon. Emotions and instincts brought to the surface.

Raven huffs low, thinking to the man's stiff muscles as he sniffed the air the second he got near Raven. "I thought so." 

"Who was he?"Clarke grumbles out and presses Raven's hand into her throat, pushing out her own scent with a feral look in her eyes. 

"O's new boyfriend." Raven smirks at Clarke's affronted look. "So you can't get all territorial and fight him."

Clarke bares her teeth, eyes still a bright gold. "I could take him."

"Not doubting you pup." Raven presses closer to Clarke, shifting weight off her aching. "But he's O's boy, you cant hurt him without hurting her." Clarke grumbles in her throat, pressing closer to Raven and the mechanic pulls at the wolf. "C'mon Blondie, i'm tired."

Clarke wrinkles her nose but trails after Raven, falling into bed with her and pressing close to the mechanic. The smell of the other wolf is slowly covered by Clarke's own.

* * *

 Raven eyes Clarke two nights later as they make their way down the street. "Sure you can keep your better half at bay?"

 Clarke rolls her eyes, tilting her chin to Raven. "I deal with you everyday, I think I can manage."

 Raven shoves at her shoulder, eyes narrowed. "Hey, offensive."

 Clarke huffs quietly, leaning into Raven's side as the wind picks up behind them "I'll be fine."

 "Sure sure." Raven nods before jerking at Clarke's elbow. "C'mon, we'll be late and O won't let us forget it."

They step into the bar after showing their id's and Clarke bares her teeth and just about pulls Raven back out the door. There was more than one wolf here. "Who all would be here?" Her voice is a low growl.

 Raven eyes her curiously but shrugs. "I dunno. Bell said he might come. He and Lincoln get along well."

 Clarke grunts low in her throat, pulling in a soft sniff, fighting through the sweat and alcohol to find a few different musk filled trails. "There's more than one wolf."

 Raven lets out a quiet breath. _"Fuck."_

The wolf's shoulders tremble and her claws lengthen as her breathing quickens. "If they hate omegas like the others."

 Raven grabs her hand, smoothing over the claws. "We'll be fine Clarke, there's plenty of humans around."

 Clarke growls low in her throat. "I'm not worried about me."

 "Hey O can take care of herself, she's in that fighting class." Clarke sends her a withering glare and Raven glares right back, squaring her shoulders. "Nuh uh, don't even think about insinuating I need protection. It is the 21 century Clarke."

 Clarke bares her teeth. "I am also supernatural and so are they. You're human."

 Raven scoffs, jerking out of Clarke's hands and raising her chin. "And I've kept up with you, lets finish walking in. Find out what happens."

"Raven."

"O and Bell are there." Raven rubs her thumb over Clarke's claws. "Everything will be fine."

"Raven." Clarke steps back, pulling at Raven's hand. The mechanic steps closer, pulling Clarke in and letting the wolf breath in her scent deeply. "Please. Raven." Eyes shift between blue and gold. "Let's leave." 

"Everything will be fine." They're in a dark corner and Raven strokes around gold eyes until they fall back to blue. "Lincoln didn't give me evil vibes."

_"Raven."_

"Focus on me, just like college right?" Clarke whimpers and growls but nods tersely. "Good, lets go to the booth before they wonder where we are, can they hear us?"

"The musics to loud." There's another scowl on her face. "I can't hear them either."

They walk through a throng of dancers to the back, Raven's fingers are curled in Clarke's, pulling her forward and towards the table. Octavia brightens as she sees them. "Clarke! Raven! Finally." Her eyes are teasing, lips twisting wryly.

"Sorry we took so long, Doc her had to clean up." Raven wrinkles her nose teasingly. "I swear she would have come in scrubs if I let her."

Clarke rolls her eyes, pressing closer to Raven and pulling in her scent. "Fuck off."

Raven winks. "Maybe later."

Octavia grins. "Disgusting. Anyway, Raven's already met Lincoln." She pulls Clarke forward by her other hand. "C'mon, you'll love him. This is his sister's bar."

Clarke shoots Raven a withering look and the mechanic shrugs, keeping her hand in Clarke's as she whispers quietly. "Whoops."

Lincoln stands tall and eyes Clarke as they comes forward. Clarke's instinct are screaming at her to grab Raven and run. There is the smell of motor oil and soft hair brushing her neck and heat pressing into her side. Raven whispers softly into Clarke's ear. "Breathe Pup." Clarke pulls in a breath full of motor oil and soft perfume and her body slackens, calming. Raven pulls back with a wicked grin, eyes dancing.

Lincoln holds his hand out, voice a gentle timber. "Pleasure to meet you Clarke."

Clarke takes his hand gently, feels Raven's clench in hers and lets out a sharp breath. "Likewise." Lincoln doesn't squeeze hard at all, just a gentle pressure before he lets go and Clarke relaxes somewhat.

Bellamy slings an arm around Clarke's shoulder, fingers brushing Ravens with how close they stand. "You guys are missing all the fun." His eyes are teasing and Clarke takes a quick whiff, stiffening as she smells another wolf on him. Her shoulders tremble and Raven's hand is a relaxing tight presence in her own. Bellamy eyes Clarke in worry. "you good Princess?"

Raven shoves Bellamy's arm off. "Your stinks getting to her." She grins at him wickedly. "Beside, she had to go to the bathroom before we got here."

He raises his eyebrow. "You're going with her?"

"Of course." Her grin turns absolutely lecherous. "Girls never go alone after all." Bellamy laughs and Raven watches as a woman sniffs the air, pressing into Bellamy's side where Clarke had been. She pulls the slightly trembling blonde into the bathroom. The beat still thumps through the walls in a gentle echo. "What can I do?"

"There's so many Raven." Clarke's eyes shift to a bright gold as they dart around the bathroom. "Every instinct is telling me to run. I've never been good at controlling my instincts."

Raven steps close into Clarke's space, catching her eyes. "That's what you have me for."

Clarke's teeth are too sharp, crowding her mouth and forcing her words to come out thick. "Raven."

Raven curls her left fingers around Clarke's chin and meets her gaze. "When that bitch pissed you off junior year of college who calmed you down?"

Clarke keeps pulling in sharp breaths. "You."

Raven nods, thumbs stroking the dip in Clarke's chin as Clarke's left hand comes to curl around Raven's wrist, claws resting against her heartbeat. "When you went into a wolfy rage in the middle of the park who got you?"

Clarke's thundering heart calms and the music stops assaulting her ears. "You."

Raven steps close, brace clicking and Clarke's shoulders tremble. "When that pack of wolves attacked you, who came for you?"

Clarke pulls in a shaking breath, eyes still bright gold as they stare into dark brown. "You."

Raven tightens her fingers across Clarke's chin, heartbeat steady. "Who is here with you tonight?"

Clarke lets out a shuddering breath. "You." 

Raven nods and pulls her into a tight hug. "Exactly Pup, I've got your back and you've got mine. Nothings going to happen, focus on me when the wolf gets too much."

Clarke sighs, pressing her nose into the junction between Raven's shoulder and her neck. "Okay."

Thin fingers soothingly rub up and down a tense back. "We'll bounce out early, claim you have to work early tomorrow."

Clarke lets out a chuckle. "I don't."

Raven rolls her eyes, bumping her chin into Clarke's cheek. "They don't know that."

They head back out there and Clarke keeps Raven near her side, breathing in the sharp smell of oil, steel and something fruity. Bellamy shakes his head at them, smirking in amusement. "Echo, this is Raven and Clarke. Don't mind them, they never go anywhere without the other."

Echo eyes them before nodding her head. Octavia drops down beside Clarke, Lincoln's smell emitting off of her. "Bell's being a jerk. Raven was here with me the other night."

"I had to work O, I apologized." Clarke teases quietly, ignoring the wolves even as her own instincts scream at her, Raven's heartbeat steady against her fingers.

Octavia rolls her eyes. "Sure sure. The only time I see you now is with our residential mechanic. As if you guys don't spend three nights together every month without us." Lincoln and echo shift closer to them and Clarke stiffens.

Raven's eyes spark and she leans more fully into Clarke's side, calm where the wolves are tense. "She cant help it if i'm awesome."

Octavia snorts, shaking her head as she takes a sip of her beer. "So modest too."

Raven's face turns serious and she leans close to the youngest of their group. "O I can build an engine from scratch."

Octavia grins, tilting her chin in challenge. "I could totally take you."

Raven's grins borders on cocky as she speaks. "Really now?" Clarke rolls her eyes at them, keeping close eye on the other wolves who keep sniffing the air and shifting closer to Clarke.

"Yeah, Indra's been teaching me. I'm a natural." Her grin is wide and she flexes her arms.

Raven furrows her brow and rolls her eyes as Bellamy pinches Octavia's biceps. "Who's Indra."

Octavia shoves Bellamy's pinching fingers away, barely sparing Raven a glance as she speaks. "Lincoln's mom." 

There is a shuffle and someone walks through the door, Clarke stiffens, sniffing the air and Raven hand grows tight as she spots the man, ignoring Octavia's words. Clarke's breathing quickens as does Raven's. Octavia and Bellamy are shoving one another, joking around, not noticing the turmoil beside them. Echo watches them with calculating eyes. "Raven." Clarke's voice is a low growl and Raven shifts closer. Clarke's hands are shaking and Raven presses her hand down to dig into Clarke's thigh. Sharp enough to draw blood. Echo sniffs the air, watching them. Her eyes shift to the man at the front of the bar, eyes narrowing.

The male wolf sniffs the air quietly, before pulling in a deeper breath as he passes by the bathroom. "Motor oil and fruit." There is a grin in his voice they can barely make out as the music drops between sets. A low growl rumbles in Clarke's chest and Raven watches her eyes flash gold under blonde tresses. Claws lengthen and teeth bare, sharper than ever. He steps up to the table at a sedate pace. "What have we here? A lost little pup and a darling girl." His eyes flicker to Raven's knee. "A still broken girl."

Echo eyes them, watches as Clarke fights to keep her wolf down, hands shaking and Raven stiffens. Bellamy glares at him, catching onto the tense air. "Who are you?"

His eyes sweep over Raven and Clarke. "An old friend."

"Don't look like one." Bellamy shifts in his seat, glaring up at the man. "How about you leave."

The man bares his teeth, still blunt and human as he speaks. "You gonna make me?" He steps closer and Clarke moves, quicker than anyone thought possible. She has his face pressed into the table with a loud thud and his arm twisted behind his back. Her nails are digging into the back of his neck and his forearm.

Bellamy jumps back in shock and Octavia snorts chocking on her beer. Neither of them see the gold eyes but they see the tremble in her arm, figure its from struggling to keep the man down not from holding off ripping out his throat. Bellamy steps closer, reaching for Clarke and Echo pulls him back with too tight hands and war eyes. "She can handle it.

The entire bars attention is on them and Clarke leans down low, to speak into his ear. Only the wolves hear her as the music drops in volume, beat low and heavy. "I will claw your gentiles off and rip out your claws one by one if you come near her again."

"How about you Omega?" He licks his lips as he moves his gaze from Raven to Clarke, eyes flashing from brown to a bright blue. "Want another go? Winner gets your girl." He struggles against her hold and Clarke growls, almost loud enough fro Bellamy and Octavia to hear as she tightens her grip on him.

The smell of blood is sharp in the air and Lincoln comes forward, eyes shifting as he steps closer to pull the man away. Clarke shift golden eyes to him, stiff shouldered and teeth bare. Echo holds Bellamy and Octavia back to keep them from spotting Clarke's eyes as Lincoln steps back slightly and Raven is suddenly pressing into Clarke's side. "I'm fine Clarke. I'm fine. Let him go."

Clarke's chest rumbles and her grip tightens. "He's dangerous."

"But you'll protect us." Raven rubs a hand slowly across her tense shoulders, whispering in her slightly pointed ear. "C'mon, let Lincoln and his pack throw him out. They have the numbers."

"I could kill him." Clarke's voice is too low for the other humans to pick up, deep and thick with anger. "Take care of him. He wouldn't harm you." Her claw dig into his neck and the wolf stiffens in her grip.

"His pack would come for you. Get you through me. Let him go." Clarke's hands tremble and Raven's sets her own on them, slowly pulling them back, tucking them into her own so Bellamy and Octavia don't see the blood on them. The man lunges but Lincoln catches him, forcing him into a choke hold as he drags him from the bar tot he back room. Clarke's eyes are on the floor and her body continues to shake. 

"Clarke?" Bellamy's voice is gentle and Raven shoots him a look, dragging the blonde to a back room, ignoring the others questions.

Clarke shoves her hands under the sink and Raven watches as she scrubs at them, fur becoming wet across the back of her hands. "All I can smell is him." Her words are rough and disordered, teeth still too long and big for her human mouth.

"Clarke." Bright gold shoot up to stare into brown. "Come here." She tilts her head to the side and Clarke races forward, hugging Raven's form to her own and taking in sharp breaths. "Slowly, deeper." Clarke pulls in a shaky deep breath and her muscle relax with each scent of the mechanic filling her nose. They stand there for thirty minutes and slowly Clarke calms down. Her eyes are still golden but her body has stopped trembling and the fur has receded from her hands.

When Clarke's eyes finally turn back to blue, Raven's fingers stroking each eyelid until the gold bleeds away, they head out to say goodbye to everyone. What they don't expect is for Octavia to be biting her lip nervously. "Anya and Indra want to talk to you. I told Indra he was being creepy, that you guys would never start anything but they need to know if the police start asking question."

Clarke nods sharply, stiff shouldered once again. "It's fine O. I'll go."

"Not without me." Clarke turns sharp eyes to Raven and the mechanic smirks, tilting her head to the known wolves in the room. Clarke bares her teeth at the inclination. Raven knows exactly how to get to Clarke. "Thought so, lead the way Doc."

Clarke grabs Raven's hand puling her in close as they walk through the doors of the back room, Clarke following the scent of the wolves. Two women wait for her at the end of the hall. They enter the room and Clarke keeps every exit in her view and a wall at her back as they enter, Raven beside her. "So you're an omega?" The woman with dirty blonde hair ask quickly. Clarke nods sharply. "There are rules in this world, I wouldn't expect you to understand them seeing as you have no pack."

"Hey, it wasn't her choice so knock off the attitude." Raven glares at the wolf and Clarke tense, claws lengthening. 

The dark skinned wolf glares but the blonde snorts, ankles crossed as she leans back against a wall. "I see. Why was he interested in you two?"

"Why should we tell you?" Raven voice is sharp and Clarke can feel the emotion projecting off the girl, protective, fear and anger.

The dark skinned wolf growls, tilting her chin. "You are in a bar full of wolves. A bar _owned_ by the Trigedakru pack."

Clarke bares her teeth. "No one is touching Raven."

Anya tilts her head, searching over her face. "No one will touch the girl. We saw how well that ended." She tilts her chin to Raven. "Now tell us what the other wolf was doing with you."

Clarke stiffens but Raven's hand is warm in her own. "He's part of a pack. A pack that offered me a position in theirs."

The dark skinned woman's tattoo flexes taut as she shakes her head, scoffing, full of anger. "And you didn't want to be at the bottom of the food chain in the pack."

A loud growl rings through the air, pulling from Clarke's chest without hesitation. "They wanted to take Raven from me. Use her for their own benefits after she saved me from them." Her entire body shakes. "After she took me home from my first moon with them." Clarke remembers blood coating her skin, fear coursing though her body as she called Raven, the feel of the other wolves watching her and blue and red eyes glowing back at her as she ran as fast and hard as she could.

"Clarke." Raven reaches forward, calming the wolf.

"They hate humans and they were going to use her to get to me." She trembles, remembers the alpha sniffing at her throat when she showed up, Raven's scent all over her. "When I didn't agree to be in their pack they threaten her, hunted me down when I sent Raven to safety after they already hurt her." She remembers the bloodcurdling  scream, echoing the forest as one of the wolves dug claws into Raven's back, blue eyes bright and malicious as he caught Clarke's eyes with his own. An inhuman howl ripping from Clarke's throat as she barreled into him.

The other wolf searches Clarke's face, tilting her head causing on of the braids to fall. "Did you kill any of them?"

A deep growl echos the room and Raven presses closer into the blonde side to calm her down. All eyes follow their movement as Clarke speaks, barley containing her rage. "No. I maimed the alpha." Red eyes full of hatred as Clarke buries a knife into his gut and slashes her claws against his face, his own claws ripping open her side before blue eyed wolves chased after her. "Wounded all the others before I escaped. I left them in Texas."

Raven is stiff against Clarke's side. "I found her in New Mexico, she wasn't healing."

Anya nods, eyes on Clarke. "Wounds done by an alpha take time to heal."

The blonde swallows down her emotions. "I thought I left them in Texas."

Anya stiffens, eyes narrowed as she thinks. "New York is a far way from Texas, he's out of his territory."

"Join our pack." A voice sounds from the shadows. Lincoln steps forward, eyes compassionate. "We take in wolves and you need a pack.

 

Clarke stiffens even more, pressing into Raven's side. "I'm fine on my own. I know what a pack entails."

 

"Protection." Lincoln's voice is calm and Anya and Indra glare at him. "Family."

 

Clarke bares her teeth at him. "Fighting. _Sharing_ what is ours. I will not put Raven through that."

 

"She's your anchor." Lincoln's voice is soft and Clarke growls at him. Raven watches with rapt eyes, pulling Clarke back. He holds his hands up. "We will not touch Raven, she is under your protection and you could be under ours."

 

"No."

 

Raven licks her lips. "Clarke, they could help you."

 

"I'm not risking your life." Clarke's thinking on instincts, memories flashing through her head. Raven screaming. Raven in pain. Bright eyes taunting them. Blood tainting the air. "You know how other wolves treat humans."

 

Lincoln growls at the assumption. "I care for Octavia and Echo for Bellamy, we do not treat them different than any other because they are human." Clarke blinks at the anger in his words, the instinctual feral haze falling away from her.

 

"It is not her choice to make Lincoln." Indra voice is warning, eyes hard. "The Heda will decide who enters the pack."

 

"We take people in Indra." He steps close to her, eyes too soft. "You took all of us in before she became Heda."

 

"And she brings trouble, you have not known her an hour and there is already a fight in our bar." Indra scowls at Clarke. "They will come for her."

 

Lincoln stiffens, eyes struggling to stay dark instead of gold. "And you would leave her unprotected?" Anya watches the exchange, quietly eyeing the two women as the other wolves speak. "They are innocent."

 

"She is an omega, she was tossed from a pack for a reason." Indra grunt out, stepping closer to the other wolf. "Already she is crazed, loosing control."

 

Raven snaps. "Shut up!" Her eyes blaze and Clarke keeps a firm hand on her fingers. "You don't know shit. Clarke wasn't cast from a pack."

 

"Raven." Clarke' speaks lowly, eyes fading in gold and her heart races as she search the wolves curious and suspicious faces.

 

"Show them Clarke." Raven glares defiantly back at the wolves, tugging at Clarke's finger. "They cant judge you for something you can't control."

 

Clarke sighs, clenches her jaw before picking up her shirt. There across her ribs on the left side is a harsh spot of pale scarring. The teeth marks are visible against her skin. "I was attacked five years ago."

 

Lincolns gaze shifts to Clarke's normal sky blue. "Have you killed anyone?"

 

Clarke swallows, thinking of the first moon, blood in her mouth and fur under her nails, Raven's hand on her back, soothing as they stand above a dead deer. "No. Raven helped."

Lincoln's dark eyes are so soft and understanding and his lips twitch into a timid smile. "She's your anchor. The thing that grounds you."

Clarke blinks at the wording again before nodding. "Yes."

Lincoln turns with hopeful eyes to the dark wolf. "Indra?"

The woman stiffens, glaring at Clarke. "It does not change anything Lincoln. The Heda will decide."

"But it's better now." He jerks his chin to the bite mark under her clothing. "She wasn't kicked out of a pack."

Anya watches with calm curious eyes as they continue to talk, Indra stiff and Lincoln wanting. "She is a bitten, uncontrolled and crazed as well as an omega." Clarke stiffens and Raven clenches her fingers in Clarke's "Frowned upon."

Lincoln's gaze shifts between Clarke and Indra. "We could train her, help her. She will lose control."

Raven stiffens, stepping forward to gain the wolves attention. _"Hey,_ we're right here. Clarke's control is fine."

Indra scowls, scoffing low in her throat as Anya leans back against the wall again, crossing her arms. "Omega's go insane without a pack, feral. Bitten wolves have less control than born. She will kill, she will attack."

Raven stalks forward, Clarke's grip on her hand keeping her from standing nose to nose with the other woman. "You know what. Fuck you! Clarke is fine, her control is fine."

Anya speaks from the shadows before Indra can step into the human woman's space. "She attacked a wolf in our bar."

"And if he threatened to rape and maim someone you love what would you do?" There is a flash of gold eyes all around her and Clarke presses into Raven's side, glaring at the two women in front of them. Raven scoffs at them, shaking her head. "Just what I thought, hypocrites."

Clarke squares her shoulders, pulling on Raven's hand. "Raven, lets go. I'll be fine."

"She will hurt you girl." Indra's voice is sharp. "You may be her anchor, you may think that makes you safe but it doesn't. You're closer to her wolf than anyone else and that will get you killed."

Raven chuckles mirthlessly, shaking her head at them. "Clarke would never hurt me, so you guys can fuck off and take your pack with you. Clarke and I can do just fine." Without a final look Raven tugs on Clarke's hand and they leave the room.

"Sooner or later it will happen." Anya's voice is low, quiet. "Be prepared."

Raven clenches her jaw, back stiff as she turns around slowly. "You tell me she is dangerous, that wolves without a pack are dangerous yet you won't take her in." Raven glares at them, finger tight in Clarke as the wolf keeps her eyes on the exits and the three other wolves. "Clarke may be a bitten wolf but she has more humanity than any of you."

* * *

 Clarke pulls back from Raven's hold once they sneak out the back door. "Clarke, don't do this." Raven steps close to Clarke, reaching fro her elbow. "Don't pull away just because they said you're dangerous. I trust you."

Clarke cracks a trembling grin. "I was taking my jacket off to give it to you, but nice to know." Blue eyes spark in relief and happiness as she shrugs out of her jacket and tosses it at Raven's face.

The mechanic laughs, pushing hands through the sleeves before Clarke is leaning back into her side. "Thanks Pup." Brown eyes twinkle in amusement.

That night they both fall into Raven's room and Clarke sits awake, body between Raven and the door as her eyes glow gold. There is fur in spotty patches across her skin and her ears are pointed and listen for danger as her claws dig into her palms and teeth into her lip. She waits for danger. For an attack. Raven mumbles beside her, pressing her cheek into Clarke's hip, her hand finds a patch of fur across Clarke's forearm and grips it gently. It calms the racing thrum of Clarke's heart and some of the patches fade to just skin. She continues to listen for danger.

The sun begins to peak through the window and Clarke's eyes flutter shut, pressing into Raven's back. Clarke's pager sounds two hours later and Clarke grumbles, tossing it to the floor as Raven stretches with a languished grin. "You didn't sleep did you?" There is a tenderness in her eyes.

Clarke shrugs. "I worry."

Raven presses more fully into Clarke's side, breathing in the scent of the wolf. It is a wild scent, the smell of summer, a forest of fresh dirt and air. There is a hint of an almost clinical smell that Raven would pick up better with a wolf nose but still, it smells like home and Raven lets out a low groan. "Go to work Blondie, i'll be fine." Clarke sweeps worried eyes over the mechanic. "Who saved your ass from the pack when they first attacked you?"

Clarke twists her lips into a wry grin, shaking her head at the too proud and cocky look etched across a dark face. "You."

"Exactly." Raven grunts as she stretches her arms over her head. "I can run with the wolves and kick their asses, so off to work. Save some lives."

Clarke's eyes sweep to Raven's throat and the mechanic rolls her eyes but tilts her head to the side with a soft grin. Clarke presses forward, taking a deep breath before rubbing her cheek across Raven's throat. "You're lucky I don't have to shower today." Ravens fingers trail through Clarke's hair as Clarke presses more fully into her.

Clarke snorts, shaking her head with a sheepish grin. "Sorry, just."

Raven nods, brushing hair from Clarke's face. "It makes you feel better."

Clarke winces. "Sounds a bit possessive."

Raven lets out a soft snort. "Please, probably scares off thee other wolves. Marking your territory and shit."

Clarke winces. "You're not my territory. You're not anything of mine Raven. I don't _own_ you." Clarke shakes her head.

"No, but your my best friend and i'm yours, so that's that. You help me deal with my shit and I help you deal with your." Raven press against the blonde before shoving her gently to the edge of the bed with a groan. "Now go, I need to work on some projects and you need to get to work."

* * *

Clarke's heading home from work when she smells blood in the air and wolf and something stirs inside of her, wild and unconstrained. She walks swiftly to the alley where the smell of blood and sound of soft whimpers are coming from. There is a large male standing above a slightly thin boy, maybe fifteen. The wolf smell is radiating off the larger of them and Clarke watches as the larger male kicks the younger male in the stomach. Clarke's own stomach rolls as her body burns and she races forward, tackling the man and shredding his shoulder with her claws. Clarke is snatched from the mans back and thrown across the alley way, slamming into the concrete before the male is on her, teeth barred and claws digging into her shoulder. His eyes are a bright blue that sets her on edge. His teeth bare and his face is half shifted so she kicks out and meets pure muscle. Blood is dripping down her shoulders and her eyes burn a bright gold as she kicks out again before finally connecting with his lower anatomy. Her howls out in pain and Clarke uses her claws to rake across his face. 

He throws her again and there is the sharp snapping sound as her bones break. She gasps for air as her ribs throb, rolling to her feet she scrambles to stand above the young boy. He trembles, blood dripping from his head as Clarke crouches over his injured body. The smell of wolf is faint on the boy, almost familiar and Clarke roars at the man in warning. Ignoring it the mountain of a man lurches forward, fur sprouting across his entire body as he howls and groans. Bones cracking and popping until he is fully shifted. Cloths ripping as he stand on his two legs, tail twitching and teeth sharp and dangerous. He lunges forward attacking Clarke with sharp teeth and quick claws. She yelps, slamming a fist into his head as slowly her vision goes form normal to red hazed. The wolf in her veins thrums and forces itself out. She can't control the way her body contorts before she is wolfed out, tail puffed out and clothing completely torn as she slams into him.

They fight with a flail of limbs and claws. Skin and clothing is shredded and blood spilt. The man latches a bite on her shoulder and she shouts out, more of a howl than scream, slamming her furry head back and kicking out with claws. They tear into his stomach and she latches onto his throat, clamping down on it with all her might as he fights to throw her off. She feels the bones break and bruises form before he is stilling below her, whimpering in defeat as he slowly painfully losses his tail and begins to shift back to human. She shakes him for effect. He just tilts his head back and whimpers again. Clarke releases letting out a warning growl as she slowly loosens her hold. He ignores the warning, jerking forward and she reacts quickly, slamming his head into the dumpster. He falls limp and she slams his head into the dumpster again with a vicious growl. Her ears pick up a slow heart race. Steady as the fur fades and he lays naked on the ground.

She sniffs, teeth and claws dripping in blood as she takes a step closer to the boy. He flinches back, a low whine leaving his lips. Clarke tilts her head to the side before stopping in her tracks. Slowly she shifts back. Muscles aching and bones grinding together incorrectly. Everything hurts and she lets out a sharp breath. "You okay?" Her words are guttural, broken. He nods his head and Clarke dips her. "Stay." The boy nods again and Clarke begins to tie the wolf up with his torn clothing, shoving his behind a dumpster as her hands shake. The wolf howls within her veins, wanting retribution for harming a pup. Her teeth are sharp and full in her mouth, aching as they threaten to expand. "Won't hurt you." The boy trembles, nodding slightly. "Home?"

His hands shake and he stands, stumbling. Clarke steps closer, holding out her hand. He doesn't flinch back but he offers her his jacket as he takes it off. She shakes her head. "Cold out."

He swallows, keeping his eyes on her face but tilting his chin down to her naked form as he offers it again. Clarke slips her fingers around it. Taking it with trembling hands. She pull in a deep breath, the hint of wolf in the boys scent, not his own. He turns and picks up an object from the ground. The phone glows as he type into it and they both just kind of stand there. Clarke shaking in his jacket and she turns her gaze to look for her own phone. There is the shift of feet behind her and she spins, only to see the boy holding her broken phone with a wince. She let out a quiet huff, another phone down the drain because of the wolf. His lips spread into a grin and there is the smell of burning rubber and the screech of tire. Feet are almost silent yet urgent against the concrete and Clarke pulls the boy behind her, baring her teeth at the entrance o the alley.

A familiar scent greet her and her face furrows before another wolf is slamming into her, eyes gold and claws sharp. She's not shifted fully, no fur growing across her skin. A feral growl leaves her throat but the boy pulls on the woman's arm. Clarke recognizes her as Echo, Bellamy's date, as she growls at the woman. Her wolf is grumbling but the scent of the woman matches the wolf scent coming off the boy. Sharp eyes stay on Clarke. "Did she hurt you?" There is a roll of green eyes before the boy points to the wolf tied behind the dumpster. Clarke stays crouched, claws ready for another attack. "He hurt you?" They boy nods, wincing as he points to his ribs. The growl deepens in Echos throat before she looks to Clarke. "You saved him."

Clarke nods sharply, hands trembling to keep her wolf at bay. Echo had attacked her, thrown her back with a loud snarl when she entered the alley. "Smelt blood." Clarke's voice is too deep, too wild a she struggles for control.

Echos face hardens and softens all the same as she cradles the young boys face. "I'm calling the others, they'll take care of him."

"Not dead. Didn't kill." Clarke voice is tense.

"I know, but they'll deal with him." She looks over the jacket wrapped around Clarke's bleeding form. "Thank you." Clarke nods stiffly, looking to the boy before backing away slowly, Echo's fingers press into the boy's cheek gently before she looks back up at Clarke. "Wait." Clarke turns at the words and takes off running before Echo can say anything else, slipping through the darkness. Echo sighs but pulls her brother into a hug. "You okay?" He nods against her shoulder, burying his nose into her shirt collar.

* * *

Clarke stumbles through the fire escape, blood thick against the borrowed jacket. Raven bolts up from her spot, eyes wide and worried. "What the hell happened?"

Clarke winces as she shuts the window. "Wolf attacking a boy."

Raven takes in the blood dripping on the hardwood of the bedroom. "What the fuck is it with a million wolves being here?"

Clarke begins to unzip the jacket, fingers bloodied and claws long. "I don't know. It's New York, there's no forests. Too many omegas."

"Clarke." Raven steps closer, pulling the jacket off gently, nakedness was never an obstacle with them anymore.

Clarke winces at the pull on her slowly healing wounds. "I know, but it's the truth. They're one of the most feral one."

Ravens chest aches at the healing wounds across Clarke's body. Raven grabs some wipes from the side table, beginning to clean off the blood from Clarke's face with gentle steady hands. "Clarke, you're not an omega, your my pack, remember?'

Tears fill Clarke's eyes. "I remember."

Raven cradles her now clean cheeks, smiling softly. "Good. Get in the shower, I'll make some dinner."

Clarke snorts, eyes brighter than before. "You can't cook."

Raven shoves at Clarke's uninjured shoulder, rolling her eyes. "I"ll order us dinner then smart ass."

Clarke pulls her lips back, teeth still too long but Raven doesn't care, Clarke lips are pulled into a teasing smile and it relaxes the aching in her chest. "I learned from the best."

Raven snorts, shaking her head. "Jackass."

"Raven?" Clarke's voice is low, but determined.

Raven's brow furrows and she searches Clarke's face for something. "Yeah?"

"I'll always pick you first." Her gold eyes are earnest. "No matter what."

"I know Clarke." There's no sarcastic comment, no word on how awesome she is. Its soft and its just for them. "Now get your ass in the shower pup, you stink." 

Once Clarke is showered and they're both fed they curl together on the bed, the jacket stuffed in the washer and Clarke eyes faded to blue once again as she buries her nose into Raven's shoulder. Raven's calloused finger trace over the once sliced open wounds, nonexistent now, hours later, but she remembers them. 

* * *

* * *

* * *

Clarke and Raven both work the next night and Clarke still has to pick up a new phone so she races home, running late but with a grin on her face. She comes home only to find that Raven isn't there. She uses the house phone to call the mechanic but it isn't answered. Both times the phone goes to voice mail, each ring a stab to the blonde's chest. Clarke's heart quickens and she pulls in a deep breath, picking up Raven's scent that floods the apartment. There are no other scents here beside Clarke's own and Raven's. her instincts force her to hone in on the mechanic, always in turn with her heart beat. Always searching and always finding. She races across town, shoving past people with too long claws stuffed into her hoodie and eyes golden under her sunglasses. She tracks the fresh scent to the wolf bar and a growl bubbles in her throat before she's bursting through the door, honing in on Raven's steady heartbeat. Octavia in front of her, grinning as she spots the blonde and Lincoln is looking up at Clarke with guilty eyes. He steps in front of her, leaving Octavia and Raven at the table. "We figured you didn't want our scent in your home."

She growls, eyes shifting between Raven and Lincoln. "So you took Raven?"

His eyes are soft and she wants to bite his head off, throw him around and show him he couldn't 'kidnap' Raven from her. "Had Octavia bring her here, knew you'd find her."

Her chest is still too tight and her golden eyes flicker to the satchel by the mechanic's feet. "Her phone?"

"Died." He keeps his distance but his gaze is too soft and understanding. "She's fine."

Clarke's shoulders slump and she listens to the steady rhythm of Raven's heart. "What do you want?"

He tilts his chin to the back door, guilty but earnest. "Heda wishes to speak with you."

Clarke follows him back with stiff shoulders. There is the sound of shoes on the floor before Raven is slipping her hand into Clarke's with hesitation. "Where she goes I go."

Anya eyes them as they walk through the back door, Octavia talking with Monroe and Harper. Jokingly complaining about her two best friends leaving her by her lonesome. Echo and the boy are there, standing beside Anya. The boy grins at Clarke before a glare from Indra has him sobering up and leaving Echo's side to go in another room. Clarke ducks her head at the tension in the room, her wolf bristling and whining inside of her. "Raven, go."

"What?" Raven's fingers tighten on her, eyes confused and concerned, a hint of anger flickering in those dark eyes. "Clarke?"

The other watch the two with confused eyes, Clarke's entire posture is stiff yet slumped in defeat, her wolf twitching in the room full of betas. "Remember the forest? You hurt one of their own they hurt you."

"I'm not leaving you to be punished." The mechanic bares her teeth at the other wolves, looking more feral than a crazed omega.

Lincoln holds up his hands, brow knitted together. "Chil au, what's going on?"

Clarke stands in front for Raven, swallowing thickly. "I attacked a wolf in your territory, possibly brought a pack war into you territory or harmed one of your own."

"He was not a friend, an enemy you saved Eliah from." Lincoln's voice is soothing, a balm to the emotions swirling around the room. "You won't be harmed."

Ana steps closer, searching over Clarke's face. "You haven't had good experience with other packs have you?"

Clarke bares her teeth, stiffening as Anya comes closer. "All packs hate Omegas. I am an omega."

"The Heda wants to offer you a place in the pack." Lincoln searches the other wolves postures, watching Anya and Indra closely. "After you prove your loyalty to the pack."

Raven squeezes her hand and Clarke lifts her chin."My loyalties lie with Raven and my friends, not with any pack."

Lincoln looks at her sadly, "Omega's die Clarke."

Her eyes flash gold and she stares him down. "Everyone dies someday."

"And Raven?" He motions to the human gripping her hand tightly. "A bigger pack can protect humans better." Clarke bares her teeth and growls, Raven's hand tight in hers.

"We've protected each other well enough." Her voice drops in a growl and all she can think of is all the times she failed. All the times Raven was hurt or Clarke lead someone back to their safe place. 

There is a look in Anya's eyes that sets Clarke on edge. "Raven, go to Octavia. _Now."_

"Clarke, i'm no-" She doesn't get the words out before Clarke is in front of her shoving an advancing Anya back. A feral growl rips through Clarke's chest and she trembles. Echo stiffens but remains where she stands, Indra snorts as Lincoln sighs deeply. 

"Anya, enough." His voice is pained and exasperated. 

Anya tilts her head. "She needs to understand the dangers to her human. I think she hasn't realized them yet."

Lincoln stiffens, wanting to interfere but he ducks his head, Anya and Indra higher ranked than himself. "The Heda will not like this."

Clarke's body trembles as she backs up, Raven's hand pressing into her shoulder blades as they back up on their way to the door and Anya strikes, racing forward with a swiftness born from years of training. Clarke reacts, growling loudly before slicing at her. It leaves Clarke wide open to receive the sharp pain of four claws in her gut. Clarke struggles with Anya, still weak from yesterday's fight. She can feel Raven's heart behind her and when Anya is almost brushing her hand across Raven Clarke roars. It is loud and brash before she is shifting fully and throwing Anya across the room. The shift was quick, impossibly so as Clarke roars her disapproval. Raven's hands are tangled into thick mats of coarse sandy blonde fur. Clarke's tail brushing Raven's brace, claws curved and muscles tight she wait for an attack, her clothes shredded below their feet.

"Clarke, Anya is not going to hurt me." There is a low grumble in the wolf's chest and Raven smooths her fingers in coarse sandy hair. "Shift back before O walks in." Clarke grumbles out a low growl, baring her teeth at Anya who watches them with shock and curiosity from her position against the wall. "Pup we're safe." There's a snort from Indra, who tilts her chin and Echo lets out a low depressing sigh before stepping closer, eyes gold and claws draw. Raven scoffs. "Really? Fuck you guys and your pack." Fingers pull at Clarke, the wolf presses back further into Raven, hiding the human's body from view. "Lets go."

The wolf backs away slowly, features receding slightly, form shortening as Raven jerks her back to the back door before Indra speaks. "Echo, Anya."

They move simultaneously at Indra's low order and Raven drops to the floor out of instinct as Clarke's tail presses into her. Clarke takes the brunt of the impact, still almost fully shift before her jaws snap onto Anya's shoulder she heaves, throwing her across the room. The bass of the bar's music covers the crash. The warrior howls in pain and Clarke glares at Echo, teeth bloodied and pulled into a snarl. Golden eyes flicker to the door the woman's brother went through and Echo snarls at the silent question. "Indra orders me, even if you saved my brother I don't disobey orders."

  
There is a fearsome snarl form Clarke and Raven stands slowly. "You guys need to look up the meaning of friendly invitation." Clarke places herself in front of Raven again. "Like the forest Pup. Nothing different." Raven grips the fur of her lower back. "We took on more then." Raven grabs a pan from the side, hands tight around it and Clarke lets out a grumble, pressing into Raven's side as she bristles on all fours, crouched and ready to defend.

Anya licks her lips, wiping the blood from her shoulder as it bleeds lethargically. "You fight well. I've never seen one shift that easily."

Lincoln stands off to the side, blocking the door to the bar in case someone tries to enter, he stares at Clarke curiously but also guilty. Indra grunts out terse words. "Still uncontrolled."

"Fuck you guys." Raven growls out as she tugs at Clarke's fur with one hand. "I thought you were different." Her eyes flicker to Lincoln. "I was wrong."

Echo grits her teeth, looking to Indra. The dark skin woman grunts, chin barely moving and Echo sighs. Dropping her head before barreling forward. Raven grins. "Now Clarke!" Clarke grabs Echo and spins her right into the pan Raven swings. It connect with the wolf's head and Clarke throws her across the room, trashing the far wall as she flies through it. She doesn't get up. Anya lets out a half laugh half growl before racing forward. She ducks under Clarke's swing and her hands grab at Raven's shirt. Clarke roars, grabs Anya and slams her into the ground, teeth digging into the woman's throat withing seconds, quick with rage. Raven's fingers stop her from biting down and Clarke's gold eyes find Indra, a low warning growl. Anya grumbles before stilling as teeth dig into her skin, almost drawing blood.

Indra grits her teeth and Anya lays there limply, not moving even as her eyes dart from Clarke to Indra. Raven keeps her fingers tangled in Clarke's fur. "She can protect herself." Raven's fingers tighten on the pan and Clarke's fur. "Let us go, we'll stay out of you  _territory."_

Indra huffs. "The Heda wishes to meet her, you will remain."

"You're bargaining with you pack-mate's life."

Indra narrows her eyes, scowling in defeat and anger. "You said before, she is not a killer."

Raven grits her teeth and Clarke keeps her own around Anya's neck, claws pressing into Anya's chest to keep her pinned. The woman growls low in her throat and Clarke rumbles deep withing her chest in warning. The stand at a stand still until a woman walks through the door. She takes in the scene, gaze finding Anya and her eyes harden. "What is the meaning of this?"

Raven motions to Anya. "She attacked us." The mechanic stares the alpha straight in the eye. "Your pack mates wouldn't let us leave, since you're here we''ll leave now."

Green eyes flicker to Clarke and Raven steps in front of the blond, shielding her from the alpha's eyes. Clarke presses furry shoulder into Raven's hip, still crouched over Anya. "You've immobilized two of my pack members."

Raven bares her teeth, standing tall in the face of the alpha. "They attacked first."

"In their territory." The woman takes a quick sniff. "She is an omega."

Raven lets out a low sound of anger, one that could rival a wolf's. "That gives them no right."

The woman stares at Raven, searching yet calm and collected before her eyes flicker to the wolf pinning Anya to the ground. "In our law it does."

"Fuck your law!" Dark eyes are wild and she take a step back to tangle her fingers into Clarke's fur once again. "Clarke let's go." Clarke lets out a growl, shifting back to her semi human form, hand now tight on Anya's throat. Her eyes burn gold and her teeth are still too sharp as she bares them at the alpha. 

"Touch Raven and die." Clarke's voice is still to rough, to animalistic as her fingers tighten on Anya's throat before she shoves her into Indra's arms, crowding into Raven's space. "Let her go."

There is a calculating look in green eyes before a chin dips minuscule. "Very well, the human may go."

"Fuck that!" Raven straightens her shoulder, fingers tightening on the pan. "You'll kill her, I'm staying here."

Clarke lets out a low sound of defeat and relief. "Go Raven."

Raven spins, pissed and affronted. "Thick and thin Pup." Raven spins the pan in her hand, teeth flashing. "Pack remember?"

Clarke grits her teeth, crouching low as she sighs. Lexa watches them curiously, waiting as she listens to the steady thump of the human's heart and the racing heart of the wolf. "You'd give your life for hers?"

"Nobodies dying here." Raven's voice is harsh and Clarke bumps into her side, trembling anxiously, chest rumbling with a steady growl. Warning all the other wolves in the room.

"You may leave." Indra makes a sound of anger and Lexa spins, eyes flashing red and she bares her teeth. "Enough Indra, a life for a life. She saved Eliah's, we spare hers." Indra ducks her chin, jaw tight. The alpha looks back o Clarke and Raven. "You could still join if you wish."

Clarke lets a growl rip through her throat, nudging Raven's legs until they slowly make their way to the door. "We'll pass n that offer." Raven snarks, reaching to grab a jacket from the shelf. They exit the door easily and Clarke pulls her down to many alleyway, away from prying eyes until she can press Raven into a wall and pull in sharp breaths. The jacket is to long on her, more of a coat and Raven's fingers tighten around the fabric as she drops the pan she had used as a weapon. "Fuck." Raven drops her head to the blonde's shoulder. "Fuck."

Clarke lets out a low sigh. "Too close, we should move."

Raven grunts into Clarke's shoulder, eyes watching the mouth to the alley. "All of our friends are here."

Fingers tighten on Raven's own jacket, ripping the fabric before she loosens her hold with a soft growl. "A pack is here Raven, one that threatened your life."

"The alpha, Heda, whatever they call her let us go. Lincoln is dating Octavia and Echo Bellamy." Fingers soothingly run up and down the wolf's back, chasing away any patches of fur sprouting under the jacket. "They can't exactly make us disappear. We'll be fine, we've made a life here."

"There's still the wolf from Texas, he was here." The blonde's voice drops lower and lower with each word until they are a deep growl. "He found you."

"We're in big bad pack territory, they can't get to us."

"Keep your phone charged, I called you." Clarke sighs into Raven's throat, claws digging into the concrete behind Raven's back and eyes a steady gold as she breathes in Raven's scent and listens for danger. 

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

Five days later and everything is still calm, the pack had left them alone and Clarke had steered clear of the bar, focusing on Raven and her job. Using her heightened senses to her advantage in the hospital. The smell of Thai food clings to their clothes as they make their way up to their apartment, faces splitting with laughter. There is a faint scent that sets Clarke on edge the closer she get to their door before it hits her. The smell of wolf is in her home and she breaks down the door without hesitation. The wood splintering as the lock rips through it, Raven right behind her. Raven grabs an umbrella the second she's through the door as Clarke listens for sounds. There is harsh breathing from the other half of the apartment and she stalks in there, stopping in the doorway as her heart stops. Octavia lays limply in her kitchen, throat bright with blood and pale scar already forming across her throat. _"Clarke."_ Raven's voice cracks, she can't hear Octavia's ragged breathing or hear the thump of her heart like Clarke can.

"She's alive." Raven's shoulders slump in relief as Clarke pulls in a deep breath, trying to keep the wolf from bursting from her skin as she listens and smells. "The alpha bit her."

Raven's eyes narrow and she tightens her grip on the umbrella as she falls to her knees beside Octavia, pushing sweat soaked hair from her forehead. "Lexa?"

Fur sprouts across Clarke's hands and her bones creak as her teeth press sharply against her lips. "No, _Texas."_

_"Fuck."_

Clarke pulls in quick breathes, calculating. Octavia had been here a few hours, the alpha left around the same time. His scent hours old. "Call the bar."

Raven looks up sharply. "What?"

The wolf's shoulder trembles. "They can help her."

Raven shakes her head, furrowing her brow. "You could help her."

"They'll offer her pack." Clarke ducks her chin, adverting her gaze from the mechanic. "I can't."

"The hell you can't." Raven stands once she's check the brunette's breathing and heart-rate, still haggard but not horrible. She would be fine, if she wouldn't be Clarke would be freaking out. "I don't trust them."

Clarke releases a grunted sigh. "She's dating Lincoln, call them."

Raven tilts her head high, lips pulled back, every bit of wolf as Clarke is in this moment. "No."

_"Raven."_

"I don't trust them, I trust you." Raven steps closer to the blonde, searching her face. "We'll let Octavia decide who she wants."

"You can't sway her." Raven raises her brow at the words and Clarke scoffs. "You know exactly what i'm talking about Raven, don't tell her what they did to us."

"Why not?" Raven's face is flushed with anger. "She needs the truth."

Clarke lets out that sound again, deep and sad yet angry. "She needs to not be an omega."

"You could be a pack."

"I'm no alpha!" Clarke's chest heaves and she barely keeps her teeth from flashing. "She needs pack. She can't do it alone, with just me."

Raven clenches her jaw. "You and I have been doing just fine." Raven scoffs, shaking her head as she stares at the clenched jaw and lowered chin of the blonde. "So thanks for the vote of confidence and gratitude."

Clarke sighs, claws tangling in blonde hair as she runs her fingers through it. "Raven."

The mechanic scoffs. "No, totally get it. Pack is pack and you have none." She shakes her head, eyes swirling with emotion. "Don't even want one."

Golden eyes flicker over a face flushed with anger and anguish. "Raven."

"I'll get her some clean clothes." Raven swallow, jaw clenched tightly as she pulls in a sharp stuttering breath. "Move her off the hardwood, you know how claws scratch it up."

Clarke longs to reach for Raven but her claws are too sharp and Raven is always iffy when she's upset, as likely to hug as hit you. "Raven, please."

Raven turns to look at her, dark eyes swirling with hurt and defeat. "What?"

Golden eyes are bright with anguish. "I'm _sorry."_

Raven snorts, shaking her head. "No reason to be."

Clarke growls low in her chest, stepping close to Raven. The human takes a step back shaking her head and Clarke flinches back, in five years never had the mechanic taken a step back. Not when Clarke had come running up to her fully shifted blood coating her muzzle from the hunt. Not when Clarke was crazed by the full moon and blood loss. A low whimper escapes without Clarke's consent and the blonde tamps it down quick, stepping away from Raven and heading for Octavia. "Dammit. Clarke." Raven's voice is gruff with too many emotions. "I'm sorry."

Clarke swallows, keeping her eyes lowered. "No reason to be." She picks Octavia up easily and carries her to the shower with Raven's sad eyes on her. Clarke rests the soon to be wolf in the tub and begins to tap at her cheek gently. "She'll wake up soon, you might want to leave."

Raven stands in the door way, watching Clarke with a forlorn twist to her lips. "You were fine around me when you shifted, she'll be fine."

Clarke ducks her chin to her chest. "You were my anchor from the start, you aren't Octavia's and the first change is disorienting." Raven stares at her, blinking before swallowing and opening her mouth. Before she can speak Clarke talks, eyes on Octavia. "I need you to call Lincoln."

"I told you, we can handle this. Octavi-"

"Should decide herself." Clarke looks up briefly at the mechanic. "And that's not why i'm having you call him."

The air is too tense and Raven wants to touch Clarke's shoulder, rub the fur across the back of her hands and the nape of her neck until the blonde relaxes. "Then why?"

Clarke doesn't look up but her shoulder stiffen as if preparing for a fight. "You're going with him."

She get the fight, the racing of Raven's heart and the flush to her cheeks as the mechanic growls out. "Too hell I am!"

"He got into our home Raven." Muscles tremble and the wolf is barely kept from shifting and pulling Raven into the farthest corner of the planet she can find. "We need more protection."

"So you'll take it from them?"

Wild desperate golden eyes meet fiery black. "If it keeps you alive yes!"

"I am perfectly fine." Raven steps close. "I will be fine."

Claws dig into the tub, cracking the linoleum and Octavia still breathes harshly, sweats as the cool water touches her skin but she doesn't wake. "He's after you because of me! He will _kill_ you."

Raven taps the umbrella with her finger, lips twitching before they fall to serious line. "I can take care of myself."

"Every-time he get closer I am terrified." Clarke desperately searches Raven's face, chest heaving. "I can't lose you Raven."

Raven shakes her head, swallowing thickly. "Because I'm your anchor."

"Because you are _mine._ Because you are everything I hold dear in this world." Clarke's eyes shimmer with tears. "You're right, I don't want a _pack._ I don't want a pack because i have you. For five years you have been all I needed. You're my best friend, the closest thing to pack I have.  You're my freaking world, my everything. I _can't_ lose you."

"You're not going to Pup, thick and thin." Raven steps close with a thick lump in her throat, searching Clarke's face before turning her neck to the side. Clarke sighs in relief, burying her face there as quick as she can with trembling limbs. Raven does the same, her nose tucked behind Clarke ear, blonde lock tickling her cheek and nose.

Lincoln comes over at Raven's regretful insistence minutes later, Octavia is awake and growling each time Raven comes close to her, Clarke receives slightly less growls and when Lincoln comes in Octavia calms. He takes her by her hand. She has yet to shift fully, instead still humanoid with golden eyes and fur across her arms. Lincoln turns to the door with Anya at his shoulder. The woman stares at them, sniffing before tilting her head to the side. "What do you plan on doing?"

Clarke looks to Raven and Anya grins grimly. "Come on then, lets talk to Lexa."

It's only a handful of blocks but every noise sets them on edge. Octavia is tucked into Lincoln's side, growling at every passing bird and tensing at every car horn. She's hidden under a thick hoodie, eyes golden under the hood and fur itching under the cotton sleeves. They are five blocks away when they run into the wolves. The smell hits them first and Clarke whips around, grabbing at the wolf who tried to creep up behind her and throwing him into the brick wall. Another wolf lunges for Raven as Clarke is tackled by a female wolf. Anya take the brunt of it when she stops a wolf from getting closer to the mechanic. But the damage is done, the claws had raked across Raven's side and the smell of blood taints the air.

Clarke lets out a howl of rage, slashing the throat of the wolf on top of her open and barreling into the wolf that had hurt Raven. Anya is putting pressure on the wound as Octavia gives into the wolf with a howl with rage. Her lithe body cracks the bones of one wolf as Lincoln holds off another one. One takes off into the forest, Octavia chasing after him with threatening growls. Clarke continues to fight with two wolf's as Anya looks up at the male who jerks to follow after his mate, her hands coated in blood and Raven's harsh pants coating her ear. "Take Raven to the hospital." Anya growls out to Lincoln, who stares longingly after Octavia but he listens to the second in command.

Anya's back is split open and already bleeding as Lincoln lifts the mechanic and takes off running. Clarke looks after them longingly before the wolf she has pinned kicks out, slicing her side open with the claws on his feet. Anya slams into it's side as three more come from the woods. Already two bodies are cooling on the floor as the two wolves fight the four from Texas.

A large male snaps Clarke's right arm, the bone protruding from the skin and Clarke shifts fully, forgetting about being in town and she rips his throat out with her teeth. She spins and attack the other wolf after her. The female wolf lowers in a crouch, chest rumbling before her black fur twitches and she is lunging forward, slamming Clarke into the brick wall of the alley and snapping at her shoulder. The teeth dig in and Clarke fights, stuck in a red rage induced haze as she digs her claws into the females face and rakes down. The dark female lets out an agonized howl before Clarke rips her throat open, claws dripping in blood as she runs to assist Anya with her two. Anya has just killed one when the other spots Clarke, kicking out to send Anya flying before he begins to run through the forest, chest heaving and limping as quick as he can.

Clarke lets out a howl and chases after the remaining wolf, he is quick but injured and Anya chases at Clarke's heels. Both wolves, one a sandy splatter of blonde and the other an almost honey blonde with fleck of brown work as one, splitting off to flank the injured wolf before they simultaneously slam into his back legs, teeth ripping into his flesh and blood spills across the forest floor as his heart stops. The trees are thick around them and there is that familiar smell before a deep laugh sounds around them. Clarke stiffens, letting out a low growl. He steps from the shadows, still humanoid but red eyes glowing and dark hair slicked back. His lips twist into a deranged smirk, teeth flashing too sharp in his mouth before he lets out a low calling noise. Octavia steps from the shadows, eyes glazed and scratches all over her body. Her disoriented gold eyes meet Clarke's before she lunges forward at the tilt of the alpha's chin.

Clarke fights to keep the smaller brunette from injuring her as well as herself. Clarke watches as the girl lets out a painful howl before she shifts fully, the moon on her back. She shakes her thick dark fur and howls at Clarke, racing forward to slam into her side as Anya races forward to the alpha, honey fur bristles enough to make her look two times her size. Clarke scrambles away from the dark wolf, Octavia's limbs are uncoordinated in this form but she is relentless and Clarke lets the wolf bite her shoulder before she grabs Octavia's neck, digs her claw into the girl's side before she throws her headfirst into the tree. She falls limp and does not move. Slowly the fur recedes and Clarke listens to her steady heart eat before she runs to help Anya with the alpha. 

Anya digs her claws into his side but he twists, claws digging into her stomach and twisting with a sneer, he hadn't even bothered to shift to his full wolf form, too arrogant. Clarke howls as Anya shifts back to human, blood dripping from her mouth and a howl dying on her lips. Clarke slams into his side, rage fueling her. He barely has time to move before her claws are digging into his throat and her teeth into his shoulder. He lets out a shocked gurgle. _"How?"_ Clarke lets out a menacing growl as his red eyes fade to their dull black. He falls to the ground with Clarke kneeling on top of him. Her fur recedes and her gold eyes widen and she releases a loud reverberating howl as they darken to a bright glowing red.

She rips his head off for measure, throwing it across the woods before she hears the pained breathing of Anya behind her. She spins, racing over to the downed wolf as Octavia wakes and leaves with wild confused and desperate eyes. Clarke spares her a glance before kneeling down next to Anya. The wolf coughs up a thick spew of blood, lips trembling and eyes dulling. "You'll be fine, I promise." Clarke presses on the woman's wounds but the bleeding doesn't stop, her heart beats to quick in her chest. The new alpha pulls in a deep breath before releasing it. "Take it." Clarke bares her neck, kneeling over Anya.

"What?" The wolf chokes out, lungs too thick with blood as she swallows down the next cough of blood.

Clarke leans down more, barring her neck even as her instincts scream at her not to. "Take it, you were wounded by an alpha and we're to far from a hospital, you'll die. Take it."

Anya lets out a grunt, twitching in pain. "It could kill you."

"It won't." Clarke pulls Anya head up to her throat and lets the woman's claws dig into her side. The injured wolf lets out a quiet grunt, questioning before Clarke presses on the back of her head and the wolf latches on with sharp teeth, growling and Clarke falls to her back in submission, throat leaking blood as Anya growls louder on top of her. Instincts forcing her to dig into Clarke until the blonde is trembling in pain and whimpering in submission. Anya's eyes are bright gold and Clarke's red before slowly Anya's gold bleeds to red and Clarke's red fades to gold. 

Clarke slumps down, head rolling lethargically against the ground as Anya struggles to tamp down her instincts, they're screaming at her to finish the job but the bleeding alpha leans back slowly, trembling. Anya pulls in a deep breath, feeling her wound knitting together easily now that she possesses the alpha power. Having weakened the blonde and taking her power with the submission and blood on her teeth and claws. She turn her eyes to an exhausted Clarke, the girl pressing a shaking hand to her own throat to stem the slow blood trickling out. "You gave up alpha power to save me."

"You saved Raven." Clarke grunts out, blinking blearily up at the woman as she climbs off of Clarke. "Id give anything up for Raven."

 Anya stares at her before kneeling down and pulling the blonde to her feet. "C'mon. Let's find the others." She slings Clarke's arm around her shoulder. The blonde lets out a hiss as it pulls at her wounds and Anya winces. The wounds on the alpha are still fresh but they're healing, much faster than Clarke's are. They lean on one another as they follow their trail back out of the forest.

Lexa finds them, red eyes flashing to Anya's red and the bite to Clarke's throat as she skids to a stop, taking in their injured forms. "What happened?"

Anya stands tall under her alpha's gaze even as instincts try to force her to fight for dominance. "I was injured, she saved me."

Lexa's eyes find the bite at Clarke's throat and the blood coating Anya's lips. "She gave you the power?"

Clarke grunts low in her chest, interrupting them. "Raven? Octavia?"

Lexa keeps staring at the blonde like she can't figure her out even as she answers the question. "Raven is with Echo and Bellamy at the bar, the doctors stitched her up. Indra and Lincoln are running after Octavia." Lexa stares at her. "Why would you go back to being omega? You had all the power you needed."

Clarke rolls weak shoulders, blinking blearily, her wounds had healed somewhat before she had given up the alpha to Anya, she still hurt all over and her throat throbbed while her sides dripped blood. The wounds from an alpha always taking longer to heal. "She was dying. She saved Raven."

Lexa jerks her chin. "Thank you for saving Anya."

Anya rolls her eyes, shifting her feet and keeping her arm around the naked blonde's waist. "Can we leave now? The rival pack is dead and I'm hungry." Lexa shakes her head, letting out a relieved sigh before she peels off her jacket, handing it to Anya. Anya helps the smaller blonde into it and Lexa raises her brow.

Anya wrinkles her nose. "You smell Leksa."  The alpha lets out a quick laugh as she peels off her long sleeved shirt and tosses it at the new alpha's head. With a scowl the alpha pulls it over her head and the three of them make their way out of the forest.

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

Two days later everyone is at the bar. Octavia is tucked into Lincoln's side, eyes bright with happiness as she goads Bellamy. Echo is rolling her eyes, hand tangled into Bellamy's left with her arm slung over her brother's shoulder. Anya and Clarke are shoving one another as they come through the door. The click of the door loud as they bare their teeth at one another, eyes flashing red and gold but also with happiness. Lexa comes to stand next to the human. "I can give you the bite, you could join Clarke." Lexa's words are soft yet tense but also earnest. 

Raven laughs, shaking her head. "Thanks but I don't need it, I've run with wolves for five years just fine." Her eyes find Clarke's and she grins leaving behind a confused Lexa as she makes her way over to her wolf, pressing a kiss to her lips. "Good hunt Pup?"

Clarke eagerly kisses Raven back, fingers tight on the back of her neck. "The best."

Raven grins, pulling at Clarke and staring at her too bright eyes. "Want to make the night even better?"

Clarke licks her lips, eyes flashing gold again. "You always make it better."

Raven laughs but kisses Clarke soundly again, fingers tight across the wolf's ribs as the sound of the pack continues around them. "Let's get out of here." Clarke growls eagerly in her throat at Raven's words before they make their way out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the wolf aspects are based off of the TV show 'Teen Wolf'. The red eyes for alphas, gold for omega and betas and blue for those that have taken an innocent life (blue and gold are only for omegas and betas). In this universe an alpha status can be stolen when a wolf kills an alpha, taking their powers, which includes better healing and more strength. It can also be taken 'willingly' so to say. Clarke gave it up to save Anya, the transfers of power was sealed by Clarke's blood staining Anya's teeth and claws and Clarke submitting(baring her throat and conceding) to Anya. An alpha is only as strong as its pack, the more wolves the stronger the alpha. Omegas are considered weak and wild because they have no pack, no ties to keep them 'human', to stop them from becoming rabid with instincts. These werewolves can fully shift into bipedal forms, like Clarke did during most of her fights. The bipedal form has a tail and is every nightmarish werewolf in the horror movies we love (note that the bipedal form can run on all fours as well).


	7. Daemon AU Part TWO: The Ground

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexa had grown up with dust and blood coating the forest floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did something completely different with this chapter, I wrote the dialogue completely in Trigedasleng. Hopefully it is easy enough to understand, but I did put translations in the bottom notes. This is my first time doing it this way so be warned, there may be mistakes in the language.  
> Anything in the chapter separated by lines is separated by spaces in the bottom notes if it makes it easier. Thank you for reading.:)

The first time Leksa kom Trikru had seen dust was when the warriors came home from the blockade to the north. She was five summers and had been all bony knees and too long limbs with her tiny little keryon sniffing the air as a pakstoka pup. They spot it falling off the warrior's keryon, clinging to matted fur and scales coated in it. Feathers fluttering dust to the air with every chirp. Teeth were red with blood and warriors were pale with it's loss. Her nontu had jerked her back by her arm, out of the way of the horses hooves. His marten scrambling down his arm and jumping over Leksa scrawny shoulders to land on her pakstoka pup's back, grumbling into ears perked at the sounds of warriors coming home. "Leksa, gon houm." Her father is tall, towering over her and his eyes are stern and worried.

Her chin jerks up and she squares her shoulders. "I ge fisa nontu."

His face twists and he scowls at her before giving a sharp nod. "Sha." So with her nontu's permission she runs to the healer tent, grabbing the supplies she can and kicking at Nyko, the fourteen summers old fisa sekon. He jolts awake, blue spiral on in eye twitching before he is shoving another bag in her arms and his grosbeak fluttering above his head before it take off out the open entrance, Nyko on her tail feathers.

Lexa scrambles after him, tripping over her to long limb at the age of five. Her face is speckled with dirt and her nose peeling from a sunburn but her eyes are bright as she stumbles to a stop beside the warriors. There are shouts and grunts as they get warriors off horses and stabilize them on the ground. Lexa scrambles up the horse's side, sitting atop its shoulder easily so she can unknot the rope keeping the blood cover and dusting speckled male on his horse. She can spot her nontu's dark mane of braids looking for his houmon, her nomon. The warrior in front of her grunts as the rope is released and he slumps to the side, Lexa's tiny hand tangled in his shirt as she keep him upright.

"Daun!" Her command is sharp and the horse below her trembles as it kneels down in the mud. Lexa struggles before the warrior slump to the side, falling the small distance to the ground. She scrambles over him, his keryon is tucked into the saddle bag. She unhooks it easily, careful not to touch the fur matted with blood and dust. She taps the horse's rump twice and it stands easily, another child ducking under the reins to pull the horse to the stables. Lexa takes in his wound, Valerian by her side, amber eyes curious. "Ge fisa Val." The wolf pup scramble through the crowd easily when most would curl in pain at the distance, tripping over her feet only a few times as Lexa rips open the man's shirt and takes in the wound to his side, it is burned. A quick fix in the middle of battle and she take in his pale face and shuddering chest. 

His fingers reach for something and Lexa pulls the man with all her might until his finger brushes dust matted fur. His chest shudders in relief before his almost familiar green eyes meet hers. "Leksa."

The small child stare at the man, searching a blood ridden face until she find familiar features beneath the blood. Green eyes as sharp as her own and a scar at his left ear. Her nomon's bro. "Sha?"

His lips tremble and there are tears in his eyes as his finger trails down her cheek, leaving a streak of blood and dust. "Yu nomon gonplei ste odon."

Leksa shakes her head vehemently. "Nou." Her nomon bro reaches into his shirt side and pulls out a bundle of dust.

"Adrostous." He presses the bundle into her hands as he say the name of her nomon's keryon and she opens it. Her nomon's small red braid is in there, covered in dust from Adrastos. "Em gonplei yuj." His large hand cradles hers and she feels tears drip down her face, her lips tremble and Valerian come running back with sounds of concern and greif before she digs her paws into Lexa's thighs. "Ste yuj Leksa." Her nomon bro slumps to the ground, breathing too sharp.

"NONTU!" Lexa screeches and she can hear her nontu's worried shout before he scramble his way through the crowd, he checks over her nomon bro before searching Lexa's face.

His dark eyes are worried and he reaches for her bloodied cheek. "Leksa?"

"Nomon gonplei ste odon nontu." She sniffs as she hands the bundle to him, tears cutting clear tracks through blood and dust.

He shakes his head, swallowing thickly but pressing the bundle back into her hand and bending down to pick his houmon's bro up and carry him to the healer hut, already full of too many warriors injured. Later he will search for his houmon's body on the cart of the dead, he will find her bright red hair and he will scream. For now he will help the injured and watch Lexa. Will watch as her keryon flits from Lexa to the healers tent, the distance greater than any he had seen, his stomach twists and his shoulders grow heavy, eyes crinkled.

* * *

* * *

* * *

After that Lexa sees dust so much it stop affecting her. She watches it fall from the injured's keryon when they are shuffled to the healer tent. She watches it when the warriors practice and land harsh blows that make their knee tremble and their keryons growl and hiss in pain. She sees it falls from the skies when the wall of fog attacks travelers. It coats the ground as they march to war. Lexa watching them leave with a clenched fist and blazing green eyes.

When her nomon bro comes back from the battle with the River Clan he has a grim set to his lips but gentle eyes as he sets a girl down on the ground. She has skin as dark as the trees around Lexa and eyes as grey as the storm cloud coiling across the skies. Her keryon is a smallish thing, big eyed and bucked teeth with dark fur. It is tucked into her shoulder with dust coating its face and clicking its too big teeth at Lexa and the wolf pup at her side, Valerian's big ears and amber eyes so like her nomon and her nomon bro's keryons.

Lexa squares her shoulder, scowling in distrust and confusion at the girl clearly from the river. Her hair is cut close to her head and there are shells tangled in a necklace across her chest, bruises cover her thin arms and a cut to her chin is coated in dry blood. "Leksa, disha ste Kostia." Her nomon bro's voice is deep and gentle, his keryon resting at his feet with sad eyes.

Lexa bows her head, polite like her nontu taught her, Valerian creeping beside Lexa to stare at them. "Heya Kostia, ai wisa yu don houm hir."

The girl scowls at Lexa's greeting, speaking with a low barely controlled rage with a thick river accent. "Disha nou ai houm."

Seven year old Lexa scowls at this girl brought back from war, she turns to help sharpen the weapons and gather supplies for Nyko, who will be taking over for his first soon. Valerian stares at the river girl, sniffing the air before Lexa's nomon bro eyes Valerian curiously the farther Lexa gets. Valerian huffs, snuffing at the two before barreling after Lexa, gait slightly more graceful than years before. She is still a pakstoka, much like Lexa's nomon, still switching when the emotions get to much. A lion for her rage and protective instinct, a small rabbit when her compassion is too strong. A hedgehog to go with the stubborn set to her jaw. A hummingbird when the festivals come near and her excitement climbs. Lexa fights the emotions and Valerian simply waits for the end, content to shift away from a pakstoka from time to time but tongue lolling out as she watches her train with a sword. Her nomon bro's eyes on them, curious and calculating before Lexa's nontu shouts for Lexa, jaw tight as he shoves her to the healers tent, scowling at his houmon's bro who stares at him with familiar green eyes.

* * *

* * *

* * *

Lexa is ten when she meets Anya, brown eyes are shadowed by soot and the girl is rail thin despite being fifteen summers and has fresh burns climbing up her left arm. A village attacked by the Plains Clan, the only survivor of the raging fires. Her pakstoka has patchy fur coated in dust and he snarls anytime someone gets near them. Valerian twitches her ears and huffs indignantly at the two before creeping closer, sniffing curiously. The black furred pakstoka, larger than Valerian but smaller than the older warrior's snarls at the grey and brown pup. Valerian continues to creep closer and her nomon bro's pakstoka huffs, growling softly as his warrior half leads the soot ridden girl to the healers tent where Nyko, now almost twenty summers sit.

Valerian follows after them, showing her curiosity when Lexa is all stiff shoulders and bright green eyes. Lexa stays by the gate, holding a too long sword in her hands. Her nontu comes forward. "Wheron ste Valaryan?"

"Kom nomon bro."

"Leksa, em ste foto." He cradles her thin bony shoulder in his too large hand. She stiffens at the words, the worried tone in them and the hitch of fear and anger. "Ge Valaryan nau."

She ducks her chin to her chest. "Sha nontu." He squeezes her shoulder one more time before watching her run after Valerian, she jerks at the pakstoka pup's fur and they go running to the forest, Valerian shifting from wolf to small lion cub as they hit the forests edge. Costia and her small keryon watch from the shadows of the meat hut. 

She climbs the trees like her father had taught her, finding small knobs and knots with her tiny sure hands and feet. Valerian pacing below her before she throws herself at the tree and uses thick claws hidden under golden fur to scramble up after Lexa. They sit on a thick large branch, the small girl's back pressed into the tree. Her keryon on her lap, golden head resting on her paws at the human lets angry tears fall down her face. "Osir laik nou foto." With Valerian's soft words Lexa's fingers tighten in golden fur.

* * *

 A few weeks pass and Valerian stays by her side, never leaving even as her nomon bro eyes her in confusion. Lexa slams the sword into the post over and over again and again, working on her swing and power. Valerian watches, head on grey paws and amber eyes sad. She roll on her side, huffing and bored with this already, longing to run around the village, find new things.

"Yu gonplei foto." Lexa bares her teeth at Costia's words and slams the sword into the post again, too much energy built up. Costia watches her with sad understanding eyes. "Teik osir gau."

"No." The thing girl's voice is too sharp but Valerian perks up, walking up to Costia, tail twitching eagerly. "Valaryan." Her order is sharp and her keryon shoots her a scornful look jerking a grey chin at the river girl. Costia smiles and turns away, walking to the gates, Valerian on her heels. Lexa grits her teeth, fists clenched and she catches her nomon bro's eyes before she chases after Valerian and Costia, her notnu's words echoing in her head at the distance Lexa and Valerian could keep. At the reprimanding tone and the fear in his eyes. 

Lexa follows after them with a scowl, nose peeling and shoulders red from the sun and Costia speaks without looking at Lexa, Valerian trailing after the river girl without hesitation. "Ai ken taut yu kom ge dina."

Lexa's scowl deepens. "Ai ken ge dina ona ai aun."

Costia grins, wild and free. "Nou swima." She shucks off her boots and weapons rolling up her pants and throwing her jacket off. The shells across her throat are bright in the sun and her hairs is in thick curls against her skull. She wades into the racing river that they get water from for the village. Costia's keryon jumps from her shoulder and lands in the water, swimming easily. Valerian steps until the water laps at her paws and Lexa sits on the bank, scowling.

"Ossian." Costia's voice is soft and the small keryon jumps from the river, a swima in its mouth. With a swift flick of its tail Lexa is splashed with water. Indignant the girl stands, letting out a shout of shock and rage. Costia grins, teeth flashing behind dark lips. 

Lexa scowls, turning to walk away before stopping and glaring sharply at her keryon. Valerian flops down on the bank at Lexa's scowl, water licking at her fur and she eyes Lexa in challenge. Costia speaks softly. "Em nou ste foto." Her eyes flicker to the gaping distance between Lexa and Valerian. Lexa's shoulders slump and she lets out a sigh, coming to sit by Valerian on the bank, fingers deftly pulling knots from thick fur. They both watch as Costia snatches fish from the river with bright eyes and flashing teeth. It is the first real smile Lexa had seen on the river orphan's face.

Lexa has her toes in the water and head on her knees when something wet and smelly hits her in the face. She looks up in shock and Costia laughs, deep and all consuming. Lexa's lips twitch and she throws her jacket and sword to the ground, lunging through the water to tackle the once River Clan girl.

They land in the water with a screech of shock from Costia and a large splash. Lexa splashes water into Costia's face, green eyes bright once again. "Yu fir raun swima." Costia speaks through her laughter, kicking up water to splash Valerian in the face.

* * *

After the river the two become inseparable, Anya scowling at them but sitting down with them at meals. Neither girl flinches or stares when Valerian takes off long distances from Lexa when they scout the forest or get swima from the river. Valerian does this now, darting quickly from Lexa's side as they trek through the forest easily, Anya waving her sword at the long grass around them. "Onya ste sekon." Costia's lips twitch as she bumps her shoulder to Lexa, soft eyes on the older thin railed girl with dirty blonde hair. "Branwada sekon."

Anya flicks dark eyes at Costia, scowling and her pakstoka huffs indignantly, biting the air near the dark girl's ankles as Anya speaks. "Ai nou branwoda sekon. Leksa es branwoda ba nou sekon. Nou yit. Em ste strik."

"Nou laik strik." She stands straighter, shoulders back as she stands tall despite her small stature. Her green eyes are swirling in challenge as she grips her too big sword in her hand, Valerian comes barreling from the forest, amber eyes on the tense scene.

Anya stands, taller than the other two and all lean muscles. Her left arm is a mass of scars from the fire that took her village and there is a danger in her eyes as her keryon shifts too stand, eyeing Anya cautiously with bristling fur before he turns to face Lexa. His fur is as black as the soot they had been covered in when they first got here. "Gonplei ai Leksa." Anya's words are laced with challenge.

 _"Onya."_ Costia speaks sharply, eyes twisted in concern.

"Shof up Kostia." Anya's eyes are hard with something as she speaks, Valerian is stiff legged beside Costia as the black keryon huffs quietly, fur still standing on end. "Leksa gaf in gonplei."

Lexa bares her teeth, green eyes flashing at the challenge in Anya's tone. The trembling in the older girls lips. Lexa tilts her chin, lips twitching in a smirk and she rolls her wrist. "Fir raun Onya?" Anya howls much like her keryon should be and she barrels forward, all fury and taut muscles. Her sword is out of its sheath and arching down towards Lexa in the blink of an eye. Lexa jerks to the side, bringing her sword up to block the sharp blade with a grunt. Anya's keryon growls low in its throat before it is grudgingly races forward to tackle Valerian from where she began prowling circles around the two warriors. 

Valerian is a shifting of color and size as her dark grey and brown fur twitches to the golden hue of a lion. She roars at the howla and swipes long claws through the howla's hide. He snarls and jerks back, Anya not releasing a sound even as her keryon whimpers with each blow Anya doesn't block. Lexa ducks under blows, quick from dodging between the hooves of warriors mounts. Quick from years of running through the crowds and their keryons. But sometimes not quick enough, Anya lands a fist to Lexa's face and the girl splutter blood over Anya's knuckles. Teeth bared as she swipes her sword at the older girl. Anya blocks it easily, but her left arm trembles under the force behind Lexa's swing and she grits her teeth, pushing against the smaller fighter. 

Lexa is an immovable object until she isn't. Until she lets her sword slack and dips her body to the side, causing Anya to stumble forward with a grunt of shock and anger. Valerian bites into the dark wolf's tail and he howls in pain, spinning and biting at Valerian's golden shoulders. Lexa lets out a soft cry but Anya makes no sound as she spins to hit Lexa with her elbow before swinging her sword up, focusing on Lexa's left. She repeatedly strikes on the younger girl's left, her weaker hand. Each swing comes closer and closer. Lexa pants with exertion before she ducks into a roll, gritting her teeth as Valerian's shoulders spill dust, she uses her sword to throw dirt into the pakstoka's eyes and Anya blinks but ignores it until Valerian bites into the left foreleg of the other keryon. Anya releases a screech. Wounded and shrill. She scrambles after Lexa striking harsher than before, faster and faster. Lexa struggles to keep up, a cut on her bicep dripping blood lethargically.

Valerian slowly backs Bayanai away from Anya until Anya stills, releasing a sharp gasp as her keryon gets to far away. Lexa stands tall, slightly slumped as she watches Anya struggle to catch her breath. There are feet audibly thumping across the ground and Lexa looks up, her nontu barreling through the tree. He is panting. "Em pleni!" His eyes are wild as they catch the blood on Lexa and the sharp gasps of Anya. His hands sweep forward to grip at the back of both girl's shirts. "Valaryan." His sharp voice causes the lion to release Bayanai. With a grumble of barely audible words Valerian trots over to Costia who scowls at her two bleeding friends. 

They are shuffled through the gates, Anya's shoulders pulled back even as shes lead like a goufa through camp. Her dark eyes catch Lexa's and the older girl grins, wide and bloodied. Lexa returns it, green eyes sparking.

* * *

* * *

* * *

When Lexa is thirteen summers and Costia fourteen springs they share a kiss and Lexa swears dust flutter behind her eyelids and through her body. Costia is water wrinkled hands and spring water on her lips, Lexa sword calloused hands and dirt ridden cheeks. It is the first of many.

With the kiss comes changes, changes to their daily schedules. Lexa quits seeing dust each time she trains, Costia's stormy eyes on her and Valerian quietly grumbling to Ossian. Her shoulders are taut with determination and pride, each day she grows bolder in her actions and each day Costia's grin grows and blooms. Some days Costia hunts fish at the river, Lexa's feet dangling in the water, shoulders sun-kissed and cheeks red with heat. Dust is far from their minds, the Clans had been quiet and war no longer hanging over their heads. Other days they scramble up trees until the ground is far below their feet and Costia's heart is in her throat. Lexa never sees dust up there, only sees the storm cloud eyes of Costia and hears Ossian's clicking teeth from Costia's backpack, Valerian lounging on a branch above them.

Most of the days Costia helps the other orphans with their chores, dark fingers rubbing smudges from too thin faces and Lexa's nimble fingers pulling too long hair into thick braids. The small children play with her sword, their keryon coming to life with each second that passes. They take them fishing and feed them until their stomachs pooch. They drag their kills to the lost children's tent, adults watching them cautiously. Each day they do this Costia kisses each and every child's cheek, eyes lost in her own memories as she cares for those like her.

And a few of the days they sit in the stable for the horses, the smell of their skrish around them and the dust in the air, horse hair tickling at their noses. These days they watch Ossian lounge at their feet and Valerian sleep on the rafters above them. In the stables they speak of Costia's home, with the snort and stomp of horses around them they are closed off from the others. In the stables Costia cries for those she lost and Lexa curls around her, soft-spoken. Valerian coming to nose at Ossian's tail and Costia's hair. 

Today they lay in the grass, nets full of swima in the water and keryon splashing around in the banks. Lexa plays with the shells tangled in Costia's short hair. There is a change in the air that causes Lexa to stiffen, she rolls to her feet hand grabbing the knife at her side. Costia stiffens, keryon slinking from the water to glare into the forest. Ossian stiff standing under Valerian's chest. "Komba raun!" 

There is a familiar chuckle as a dark pakstoka slinks from the shadows, Anya on its tail. "Leksa, Kostia."

Lexa huffs and Costia laughs, stepping forward to pull the tall gona into a hug. "Onya." The two orphans squeeze one another tightly. 

Anya pulls back and stares straight at Lexa, tilting her chin to the knife still in Lexa's grip. "Yu don os, strik gona."

Lexa scowls, putting her weapon away with a huff. "Onya."

Anya grins, eyes sparking. "Strik gona." She grins like she hasn't in a long time. She is eighteen summers and she smiles like it doesn't hurt anymore. She eyes their closeness and her grin widens. "Leksa." Lexa stiffens at her tone as the new gona prowls around them in a circle, taking in their close proximity and Costia's rolling eyes. "Costia yu smuch Leksa op?"

Costia pinches at Anya's side, dipping between the ridges of her light armor. "Shof up joka."

Anya laughs loudly jumping away from Costia's fingers. She dodges around the River girl to rub at Lexa's head tauntingly as she winks at Costia. There brunette shoves away her hand with a scowl, but green eyes dance with amusement and embarrassment. Anya pokes at Lexa's now strong shoulders, seemingly taking in the changes over the last six moon cycles. "Nou krei strik nau."

Costia rolls her eyes, lips twitching into a grin as she heads to the river, pulling the nets up and tossing them at the two having a stare down. The stumble under the weight and smell of fish. Anya sighs, slinging the net over her shoulder with ease, new scars peeking from under her clothing and muscles stronger than when she left. Her training and scouting missions leaving her thinner with hunger but stronger. With laughter between them and their keryon ambling behind them they make their way home.

* * *

* * *

Seven moon cycles later the village is attacked. Dust thick in the air. Keryon run around, looking for the opposing keryon to fight but there are none. The gona's raiding the village are ripas. They have no keryons at their side, no recognition in their eyes and no dust to match the blood being spilled. Lexa grips her sword tightly as she goes running from her home, her father ahead of her and Costia grabbing children and leading them away from the heat of the battle, Ossian clicking her teeth harshly in nerves even as Costia's face stays calm. 

Anya goes running past Lexa, Bayanai a dark streak beside her. Lexa doesn't stop running but Valerian comes to rest at Costia's side. Costia strokes the pakstoka's face with trembling fingers and across the village Lexa's shoulders stiffen with a final resolve, Costia's touch fleeting across her. Strengthening her. Valerian nudges Ossian with her head before she is racing after Lexa, howling into the air, a battle cry even as Lexa remains stonic and silent. 

Lexa is in the midst of it, eyes on her fellow gona, she catches her father's tall head and thick braids. Anya's strong shoulders and Bayanai's patchy pelt. They are enough to strengthen her as she blocks swings of swords and swift knees. Her heart races in her throat as she struggles against these too strong men. She watches dust spill around her, none of it the ripas. They have no keryon. Are missing the thing that makes them what they are and confusion and fear bites at her stomach. She hears a familiar cry and her eyes find her nontu's marten. She screeches again, full of agony before bursting into golden dust. Lexa screams then, chest tight. Tears spring from her eyes and she slips her sword into the heart of a ripa. No dust spills for him but his blood drips down her hand, her tears falling into the bloodied mess on her finger. "Em pleni!" She screams. She screams for the fighting to stop. For the death to stop and the ground to stop soaking up the blood and dust of the dead.

The two generals are gone, their blood spilling from their bodies and Lexa watches as the ripas tear the rest of them apart. They are only a hunting village with a small force of gona. They are not ready for a battle with no generals. A battle without directions. They will surely all die and then the children with perish. They will be taken and Costia with them. Valerian stops above the body of a ripa, howl turning into a loud roar as brown and grey shifts to orange and black with that thought. 

Lexa is thirteen summers when her keryon settles. She is thriteen summers when she fights her first battle. When she kills her first opponent. She is thriteen when she longs for the fighting and death to stop already. "Em pleni!" Her words are punctuated by the roar of Valerian. "Seifas em.

Lexa shouts at gona three times her age. Valerian begins to corral the ripas, snapping and snarling at them. Lexa turns to Anya and the young gona smirks, tilting her chin before she and Bayanai join in with Valerian. "SEIFAS EM!" Lexa's roar echos and there is no hesitation, with a plan formed and an order the remaining gona get to work. They circle the ripas, caging them with their swords and the shear amount of keryon and remaining gona. Some still fall and Lexa is cut more than once but when the last ripa body falls, with no dust to announce his death Lexa stands stiff and tired, Anya standing by her side before the gona opens her mouth and howls loud, her keryon joining in. The other gonas shout their own victory. Behind Lexa her nomon bro watches her with narrowed eyes and a bleeding head.

Anya shoves Lexa's shoulder. "Branwoda." Lexa looks up to the girl turned woman who has been helping her. They are both coated in blood, eyes bright but heavy. Lexa's face is streaked with dirt and blood, similar to the strikes that are sleek and proud across Valerian's new form. Neither of them notice her nomon bro eyeing Valerian's stripes.

* * *

Anya becomes Lexa's fis at only eighteen summers. The gona already commanding a small group of warriors twice her age with the new chieftain's approval. The new woman changes the gonas training, moving the younger ones up and the older gona to training and strategy. Lexa flourishes under Anya's firm but teasing tutoring. Morning are filled with Anya sweeping her feet out from under her and the teasing glint in her eyes as she tells Costia to quit distracting Lexa.

The moons pass with Costia and Lexa growing closer, keryons touching again and again. Anya notices the stare of Lexa's nomon bro, keeps him in her mind as she moves Lexa's training from the village to deep in the forest, away from his prying eyes. The peace lasts only two moons before it is ripped under their feet.

Costia watches Lexa's nomon bro speaking to a balding man with marks on his head, the fliemkepa. Her heart seems to stop in her chest and her stomach drops as the man eyes Lexa bounding in from the forest, her green eyes bright and lips wide in a grin, Anya grumbling behind her. Valerian greets Costia with chuffing, saying her name once in the middle of all the noise. Costia lets her fingers trail over dark stripes as she eyes the man in distaste. Lexa forgets the distance from her keryon as she shoves Anya around, knocking into one another and the fliemkepa get this look on his face that has Costia walking to Lexa, Valerian following her in confusion. "Leksa." Costia greet the girl with a soft press of lips, Ossian biting at Lexa's ankles teasingly.

Lexa blushes to the root of her hair but returns the kiss eagerly, bruised knuckles brushing a shell tangled in Costia's hair. Her green eyes are bright and and cheeks flushed. Anya makes a noise of disgust and whacks Lexa's sword with the hilt of her own.

Lexa is fourteen summers when the fliemkepa walks over to them and bows his head. She is stiff shoulder at the distrust in Costia's eyes, caution rolling in her stomach at the tension in Costia. Her nomon bro swallows thickly behind the man and Costia feels a hatred for the man who broke a promise to Lexa's nontu the second he had passed. A hatred for the man who spoke to the fliemkepa, who she knew could ruin Lexa. "Leksa, ai laik Titus." He meets her gaze, find the intense green and almost smiles. "Yu don heda keryon."

* * *

Titus changes _everything._ For fourteen, almost fifteen summers he had searched for the new heda, believes he has found heda in the sun-kissed trikru sekon and her feisripa keryon. In the sekon who had commanded a group of village gona easily. A sekon who had found love already. Titus had scowled at that weakness, the thing that could end everything they are fighting for. The thing that tore the last commander to pieces. Lead to his death. Titus' spider, hidden among the tattoos on his head watches the soft touches between Costia and Lexa, the weakness in her bones and the touching of their keryon and something in the man twitches, a scowl settling across his face, pulling his wrinkles down and his tattoos taut. Eight beady eyes watch Lexa like she is the answer to everything.

Titus plans, he speaks with the girl's nomon bro and sends his message to the others in Polis, letting them know of his discovery. In his bones settles the knowledge that Lexa is the heda, the spark in her eyes too familiar to be any other. The far away look when she first wakes, memories that aren't her fading to the background. The language she had never studied leaving her tongue easily. All the signs are there and he longs to pull her away from this village, to mold her like he couldn't the last. To save her like he couldn't the last. He gathers the horses, leaves harsh words with the stable hands and insistence that only three accompany him to Polis, Lexa the heda keryon, Anya her fis and her nomon bro. 

He stalks to the war tent with stiff shoulders, coming through the door with a bowed head to the heda keryon. "Leksa."

The girl lifts her chin. "Titus."

He sets the map down and traces the trail they will follow, telling her where she and Anya will train and stay.

Lexa is stiff with her chin tilted high in defiance. "En Kostia?"

Titus holds her growl, his stiffening shoulders but his spider bursts with the energy, skittering across his head and Titus speaks. "Em set raun."

Valerian sits quietly in the far corner, eyeing Titus through half lidded eyes as Lexa grips her sword with her hand, still tucked away in her scabbard. "No, em kom op."

Titus stares at her stiff limbed and glowering as he test the gleam in her eyes. "Yu gaf in Kostia sin in yu wan op?"

Lexa grits her teeth, Valerian bristling across the room, no longer half lidded as Lexa growls out her answer. "Ai nou gon wan op." Titus leaves it there, allowing Lexa to go back to her tent and pack, his spider twitching across the markings on his head.

He sits in the war tent, dipping fingers in dark liquid and whispering chants to the keryons of the past. Lexa tosses and turns in her sleep, dreams, memories, haunting her with each word that leaves his lips. Costia comes to settle her, dark fingers soothing over the wrinkles in Lexa face. A soft kiss to Valerian's maw and fingers teasing through Lexa's hair, pulling out knots and calming both girls. Lexa stills in her sleep, murmuring softly as Ossian curls in the crevice of her knees.

The next morning Titus pulls Lexa from her bed, alone. Valerian is gone as are Costia and Ossian. Lexa doesn't answer Titus questions. "Valaryan kom op. Chil au."

Anya shift atop her horse, Bayanai grumbling as he paces around the horse, stiff legged and glaring balefully at Titus.

There are hooves tapping against the hard earth and Lexa looks up, Valerian slinking forward from the stables, Costia on a horse behind her, Ossian tucked into her jacket front. Lexa sits up straighter, eyes bright and a grin flashing across her face. Titus clenches his aw and spins his horse around, conceding a battle he knows he will loose.

* * *

The trip to Polis takes half a day and Titus spends it watching Lexa smile at Costia, Valerian prowling around the forest, easily keeping pace with the horses as Bayanai nips at Titus' horse's tail, causing it to jolt every once in a while and divert his attention from Lexa to controlling his horse. Costia spends it grinning at Lexa and listening to Ossian murmur words of discomfort and dislike about Titus, preening under Lexa's fingers when she stretches across the distance to stroke Ossian's fur.

The gates of Polis are large and Lexa stares open mouthed at it, Anya almost smiling behind her. Lexa had yet to travel to Polis for the gathering of that summers sekon tournaments. She had yet to see the city in all its glory. A capital for the Commander, made by the commander and housing all twelve flags, all of the Commanders people. A place untouched by their intolerance of one another. Where the twelve clans mix as one without disputes and hatred. It is there, lying in wait under slack faces but in the City of the Commander they behave.

Anya kicks Lexa's boot with her own and the sekon closes her mouth, wide eyes finding Costia's before she straightens her shoulders and nudges her horse forward. They are stripped of weapons at the gate. Lexa twitching as they pat down Costia.  Anya tilts her jaw minuscule, only Lexa catches it and the girl holds her tongue. Gona, with patches on their shoulder pads, it has twelve knobs, one for each of the clans, grooved together. One line connect top to bottom, cutting through the inner circle the other four lines meet. The symbol of the Heda. Valerian stares at them blinking slowly. They watch her with the same knowing eyes before leading Lexa to a building, Costia and her nomon bro left at the door to the domal building. They move through tunnels, twists and turns, Anya's presence a comfort to Lexa as they head deeper and deeper into the darkness. Titus motions Anya back and Lexa is led through the doorway alone. Candles light the room and there are objects all over the room, flooding the tables and flowing to the floor. "Sad op sis." Titus leaves with those words, the door shutting with a resounding thud.

Valerian sniffs the items, batting at them with large paws she would grow into. Lexa looks around the room, completely alone. Her eyes zero in on red and something in her eyes flash, heat blooms in her neck and Valerian turns, trotting to the red and pulling it off the table. Lexa touches it with hesitant fingers that jerk with the touch of soft cloth. There is the feel of fire around her, ash in her throat and the frayed burnt edges of the red sash make her face itch with pain. She jerks away from it, Valerian pulls it gently to the door, eyes haunted. 

Her frame trembles as she walks around the room, there is a tugging in her chest, an ache she felt on certain days of the seasons. Her fingers brush along all the items, Valerian pressed into her knee for comfort. Feathers under her finger, then metal before her hand trembles across the hardness of a pad. He left shoulder aches, throbs in time with her heartbeat as she presses her fingers into the large gouge taken out of the shoulder guard. She picks it up, hands curving over the creaking rubber. Dust is settled over it. It had been sitting untouched in this room, awaiting the next commander. She sets it down atop the red sash, rubbing absently at her shoulder. A phantom flicker of pain deep in her bones.

She touches glass, cold against her finger tips and feels nothing. She picks up a bow and feels nothing as she sets the ornately carved thing down. She fingers the feathers, knowing Anya would have gone for the bow. Would have taken it with gleaming eyes and an excitable tenseness to her shoulders. Lexa brushes her fingers over Valerian's head as they move as one to the left furthest corner of the room. They move armor and weapons out of the way, hands growing stiffer with each objects moved until her hands settle on a pair of gloves, they are covered in dust and she wipes it away, the metal atop them gleaming under her hands. Her bones ache with a sudden cold, joints in her fingers creaking like she had buried them in ice cold water. Valerian unsheathes her claws and retracts them over and over again, trying to get the feeling to leave their limbs. Lexa stands on shaking legs, breaths fogging in front of her as she carries the gloves to set them on the shoulder pad.

Valerian mewls softly, pained and so quiet from across the room. Lexa goes to her and falls to her knees, staring at the object in front of her. It is a wooden rattle, carved with so many details and full love. Vines climbs up the handle to surround the circle etched with keryon of different statures. It is glossed like it is freshly made, worn only at the bottom of a handle. Like it was gnawed on by a child or a keryon. The is this dropping in Lexa's stomach, this sadness that coats her entire being. That crushes her and with a shuddering breath her fingers tangle into Valerian's fur. She feels this loss that makes her hunch over, tears prick her eyes and they falls down her cheek into Valerian's fur. The tiger curls around her, fur standing on end as she trembles along side Lexa. They seek comfort from one another before Lexa takes the baby's toy and sets it cradled in the red sash.

Next is a sword calling to her across the room, thinner than a leaf with a thick handle. The sword is almost as long as she is tall. It gleams in the candle light and her fingers brush across it, there is a despair that haunts her chest when she touches it. Ghosts clinging to it. The sound of battle in her ears and blood thrumming through her veins. Valerian presses into her side with a soft sounds, eyes darkening with each object they find. She pulls it free of the rubble and swings it quickly. It fits her hand like it was made for her, like it was forged to fit her small hand. She hears screams as she swings it again and she halts, blinking her eyes free of a memory that isn't hers. Valerian shakes her head, coming back with Lexa, eyes wide with emotions not her own. They move as one, Lexa slipping the sword into her belt loop and they make their way to the back of the room, easily wading through the clutter before they both still.

The last is a dark scrap of metal. It is burnt and twisted beyond recognition. She falls to her knees, they crack on the hard floor as she stares at the scrap of metal. She touches it and fire blooms behind her eyes. Her body feels like it is being torn apart and she shudders. Screams in her ear, pain in her bones and red behind her eyelids she stands on trembling legs to take the metal to the door. She sets it by the others, reaching down to pull the shoulder pad on, it is too large on her but she knows she will grow into it. The red sash fits into it easily and she slips the gloves on like they're a second skin. The rattle and the metal are hooked to her belt beside the sword. With steady hands and a heavy heart she raps on the door. Shoulders pulled back she meets the eyes of Titus' keryon.

Valerian is stiff with greif, Lexa staring without actually seeing, too many emotions flooding between her and Valerian. Anya looks at her full of worry but Titus' eyes are bright and his keryon skitters across his head.Titus bows his head and leads her to a room where they set aside the belongings of the commander. The objects placed over a thick metal frame built like a warrior. He leads her to a building, the firelight of the street candles dying slowly as they make their way to a thick wooden door.

They spend the night in the house for guest, the thick door barred with a wooden block. Costia and Lexa pressed together in the bed, Anya watching over them with a furrowed brow. Bayanai paces the room, fur bristled and they wait out the night. Valerian licking Ossian gently.

* * *

 Titus comes for her in the morning, dragging both her and Anya to a room below the flat oval fighting grounds. Anya helps her dress, tightening a shoulder guard with a tense jaw, worrying for her sekon. For her friend. "Win au." Anya swallows, dipping her fingers into a bowl, her fingers streak across Lexa's face, over her eyes and to her hair before climbing down her cheeks. Anya's fingers tremble. "Win au strik gona."

"Onya." Lexa's throat is tight and she stars at her first, her shoulders straighten and she tilts her chin up. "Ai nou wan op."

Anya squeezes her chin before trembling fingers, leaving behind marks of black that she carefully wipes away. "Yu bilaik feisripa. Bilaik Valaryan." Lexa looks down into the mirror Anya holds to her, stripes paint down her cheeks like the black of Valerian and her heart seizes with emotion. She latches onto Anya, pulling her into an embrace that is stiff before the fis relaxes.

Bayanai nips at Valerian's tail but licks the tigers shoulder before skittering to Anya's side. Anya steps back, pressing a sword into Lexa's hand and moving to tighten her braid. There is worry in Anya's eyes but also faith. A victory already won. Anya had heard Titus the same as Lexa had. Lexa had found all six items unlike the other eleven heda keryon. Unlike the chosen from the other clans. Anya squeezes her shoulders and bows her chin like Lexa is already the Heda, like they had already won and the girl straitens her shoulders with the unwavering faith of her fis.

Costia comes running down the tunnel, barreling int Lexa's side as Anya watches on. They don't speak, simply hold one another until Costia presses something into her hands. It is a knife, the blade a gleaming silver and the handle a thick smooth wood the fits perfectly in her hands. The silver knobs across the handle are cold to the touch. Costia kisses her, fingers covering the black stripes down her face before she pulls back to press her forehead into Lexa's. "Komba hir ai Lexa."

Lexa closes her eyes and breaths in the familiar scent of Costia, Ossian pressing into her shins and she lets out a shuddering breath. "Sha Kostia. Otaim." Tears fill Costia's eyes but they do not fall as Anya pulls her back. They are young, far too young to cry tears of fear and death. 

With renewed vigor and a new knife tucked into her belt she makes her way into the sunlight, Anya walking out another door to standing on the sidelines. Costia forced to stand in the crowd, Ossian gripped tight in her hold. Lexa continues to walk until she stands in the last remaining spot in the circle of the twelve heda keryon. Titus stands in the middle. "Hashta heda gonplei, bilaik won hedon noumon: jos won ste raun." 

They twelve of them stand with their Clan's insignia etched across their shoulders and weapons in their hands. Keryons stand tense and ready. Lexa looks down at her hands, the right curled around her sekon sword. She remembers the screams when she picked the commander's objects up. Remembers the feeling of loss in her stomach and the pain in her body. She drops her sword and stares straight ahead at the others with her chin tilted high. Some of them are young, younger than Lexa and some of the are a few seasons older.

Titus looks at her, then to the sword on the ground. He has already called the battle but none have yet to move, focused on Lexa. "Wan emo op."

Lexa tilts her chin high. "No." Her voice echos around the arena and all eyes are on her.

Titus' spider skitters its legs in agitation. "Yu souda."

Lexa motions to the others, Valerian stiff by her feet as her vice echos in the silence. She does not want to see dust today. Does not want it coating her hands. "Emo nou gafen wamplei."

He grits his teeth, keeping his words low as he steps closer to her. "Emo frag yu op kom au heda." 

She looks to the crowd then the other contenders before meeting Titus' glare head on. "Ba din ai no frag em op."

There is a silence that echos around them, the other heda keryon shifting their feet in confusion and hesitation. A boy with scars etched across his face moves faster than a snake, a spear leaving his hands to embed in the chest of a boy with dirty blonde braids and a cloth tied around his head and shoulders. His keryon, a small wolf like creature the color of sand, bursts into dust. Lexa lets out a shout and Valerian is already moving, tackling the boy and then pinning his small white bear keryon down by it's throat. Teeth draw dust and the boy stills.

Another raises his spear and Lexa rips bolas from her belt, spinning them to wrap around his chest and arms. He had sharp teeth tangled in his hair a bear claw across his throat. He hits the ground with a grunt and his keryon, a small cat like creature growls at Lexa. Lexa stands tall under all the stares. "Empleni! Der nou badan gafen wamplei."

The boy with the mark of Azgeda is glaring at Valerian and his white keryon shifts his gaze to Lexa. "Hakom ste bilaik?"

Lexa pulls all the confidence into her chest and lets it flow from her lips. "Ai laik heda en ai hedon em." Valerian roars as the bear twitches under her and the boy moves like a snake, slipping a knife from his belt to Valerian. Lexa pulls Costia's gift from her belt and throws with all her might. It buries into his left shoulder and he howls as Valerian spins from his knife and roars in his face. His bear stiffens but holds still at Valerian's growling.

The boy, a few seasons older than Lexa speaks through clenched teeth. "Ai nomon frag yu op."

"Teik em trana. Ai laik heda, ai nou wan op." Lexa is all tight shoulders and finality but for the first time the conclave ends, not with all the others dying but with Lexa ending the blood shed.

"Won fali treot," Titus speaks with a clenched jaw and she nods, letting Valerian follow after the other competitors as they make their way to their people, weapons taken away. The distance between Lexa and Valerian growing greater and greater until the crowd bows at the feet of their new heda, proven to them by the distance and that familiar gleam in her eyes. The Commander's spirit had chosen one who did not think blood first and for the first time in a long time the clans eye one another and the commander in confusion and loss.

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

Titus tells her love is weakness every chance he get. Be it when Lexa comes home from battle and Costia is waiting for her or when Costia comes down with a chest cold, her coughing thick and harsh and Lexa calls off her journey to the Ocean Clan to be by her side. He tells her it when she watches Costia speak to the orphans in their own tongue, all of them from different clan brought to the capitol for the care if their tribes could not provide it. She spends her nights tangled with Costia. Her days training with Anya and Valerian. Her mid-days training and getting to know her Heda gona. Afternoons with the trikru gona. Thick rippling muscles and hard eyes. There is no pattern to her days, each is different than the last but her nights are always the same, spent with Costia.

When she leaves on scouting missions, Anya by her side Valerian trails ahead of them and Costia is left behind, her storm grey eyes worried as children grips her fingers and shirt tails. Ossian sits on her shoulder, weighing it down the larger he grows. Titus watches from the tower with a twist to his lips. Lexa comes home bloodied and thinner than normal a moon later. Costia cradles her face in her hands and the orphans swarm around Lexa, their keryon shifting and bright. She hands them all objects from her travels, gifting the children with them and a brush to their shoulders. Valerian presses into Costia's legs, taller and thinner than before as they make their way to Lexa's house, tucked near the orphanage by the sea.

Each moon is spent fighting for the combining of clans. A coalition that makes Costia's eyes water in pride and earns her a deep kiss and fingers in her hair. Costia wipes the stripes down her face away and cleans up her bloodied and bruised flesh with water and kisses. As Lexa grows taller and her muscles strengthen Costia flourishes in the sea, fish in her hands and children at her feet. Laughter lines her face as does worry. Before each journey Lexa presses her lips to Costia's and the once river can murmurs familiar words. "Komba hir."

And Lexa murmurs back. "Otaim." Every time Ossian nips at her covered ankles with sharp teeth and Valerian butts her head into Costia's hips and they leave, tears in their eyes.

With each death and battle Lexa loses herself a little more each time, she fights for peace. For a calm surrounding the clans but it is hard and grueling. There is too much hate between Clans and she goes to each, trains sekon and gona at all the villages she comes across and leaves gifts of food and fur with all those she comes across. She spends nights helping build stronger fences in a far away Plains Rider tribe. With horse's nipping at her shirts and the stars visible in the clearings. Not a tree in sight she aches for home. She spends days on the river, shoulders bright red and fish landing in the boat as she speaks with Costia's thick home tongue leaving her lips.

She heads to the mountains where the rocks are harsh and the trees short and enclosing around them. She helps clear pathways to other Rockline villages and leaves dried meat and fruit with them as well as a few horse to help them move up the mountain faster. She spends a grueling three nights in the ice, surrounded by those with scars on their face, decorative and raised. She spends three nights curled around Valerian at her front and Anya at her back. Their lips are blue and they shiver but the haul logs upon log to the villages for firewood.

She has chapped lips from the desert and her face is red and shoulders blistered. Anya is a red as she is and they sooth themselves in the shade with leaves from the Broadleaf clan. Green paste coats them and they smell but they are soothed. With promises of more help from Lexa to each village and Clan they head back to Polis to finalize plans. Costia greets them at the gate, hair freshly cut and news shells tucked into the tight curls.

Three seasons of this life pass and Lexa is verging on her eighteen summer when tragedy strikes. The Blue Cliff Clan are invading the Plain Riders Clan and Lexa is forced to go play peace maker. Three moons pass of Lexa stuck in treaty meetings and battlefields, Anya is haggard by her side, arm in a sling and Lexa is worn tired as they finally make their way to Polis. Her fingers brush her knife over and over on the ride back and she can't wait to see Costia again, three moons the longest she had been gone from her. The trip takes five days of nonstop day riding before they enter the capitol in the darkness of the night. 

Anya shuffles to the healers tent with a squeeze to Lexa's arm and Lexa makes her way up to the tower where she knows Costia will be waiting, the orphans tucked in the rooms around them. Too many to fill the small house they had lived in two summers ago. The tower is a home to Lexa and orphans like herself, with Costia's easy coming and soft love surrounding them. She makes her way to the very top, Valerian with her tail dragging behind her until they come to her room. She opens the door and there is a lump on her pillow, she blinks in the darkness, looking for Costia but all she sees is an Ossian sized lump on her pillows. She lights a few candles and releases a scream that rips through the tower. Her heda gona come running to her, as exhausted as she is but ever present. 

Valerian yowls in grief as Lexa falls to her knees beside the bed, trembling fingers brushing Costia's cheeks. They are cold to the touch, chilled by something. Her eyes are wide open and in her mouth is a bag. Lexa pulls it out and opens it. Dust, barely a handful, fills it. Like the dust would prove Costia is actually dead. Lexa brush fingers through Costia's hair, too short to braid and there is this keening sound in her ears before strong familiar arms wrap around her. Anya is speaking in her ear but all Lexa can do is stare at her soulmate. At Costia's head and unseeing eyes. The floor is empty, no orphans in it and that should have been Lexa's first warning. Costia would never let the children be forced out of the tower.

Another scream builds in her throat and Valerian roars to echo her. Valerian tears the room apart, ripping the curtains and gouging holes in the wall. Cuts mar the left side of Costia's face, her ear gone. It makes Lexa cry harder. Bayanai releases a long sorrowful howl that chills the bones of those in the room. The capitol awakens to the pain of those who lost a loved one.

She sets Costia's head in the cooling room, awaiting the rest of her body as she stands on the balcony. There are footsteps behind her and she doesn't turn around before speaking. "Ha?"

Titus stiffens at the cool emotionless tone, the stiffness to her stance. "Emo don kyon em tu natshana."

"Chon?" Her fingers tighten on her knife and Valerian snarls at him from her seated position int he corner. "Hakom yu nou tel ai op?"

His face is impassive and his spider sits calmly on his head. "Don wor mou meija." 

She spins to face him, face blazing with anger and her heart aches, her hands still tight around the knife. "Chon?"

"Azgeda." A calmness settle over Lexa and the girl leaves the room on the day of her birth, Costia's death on her mind as she heads down to the armory. Titus yelling behind her but there is a ringing in her ears as she loads her horse up. Anya is beside her and she blinks in confusion but keeps heading to the gate, her heda gona slowly falling in line beside her without question. Lexa marches through the forest in silence. Valerian by her side and Anya all clenched teeth and pained scowls. 

Valerian sits by her feet, trembling stripes as she speaks to Lexa, quiet and drawn. "Leksa, ai beda don kamp raun Kostia."

"Foutaim ste foutaim Val. " Lexa's eyes are glistening with tears and she doesn't reach out to stroke Valerian like she once had. She doesn't touch the familiar striped fur for comfort they both needed.

They ride for three days straight until they come upon the gates to the Ice nation. Lexa's chest is heaving and the bag of dust sits heavy in her pocket. 

"Kostia gaf in ogonzaun." It is Anya, soft and as broken as she is. She lost a best friend, a sister and her grief is as palpable as Lexa.

"Ai gafen frag emo op." Her hands tremble across her sword and she wants blood on it, wants screams in her ears and dead at her feet. She wants dust on her face and blowing away in the air.

There is a familiar harshness to Anya's eyes as she glares at the gate. "Ai get in."

Instead of leading a killing spree on the Ice Nation Lexa marches into the thrown room, taking any guard down she can but not killing them. She moves with a speed and mechanicalness born from greif. Before they know it she has the prince on his knees, a familiar white bear held down by Valerian and other keryons. "Kostia stedaun." Her voice doesn't shake but her eyes gleam with intent.

"Sha." There is blood flecked on the queen's hand, a bite to her knuckles by large teeth Lexa knows by heart. The queen tilts her head to her son with bored eyes. "Roan wan op Kostia.

The man below Lexa stiffen but say nothing about the lie leaving his mother's lips. Lexa grits her teeth, longing to bury her knife into the queen's eye. " Yu don glong op kongeda."

The queen looks up in shock, barely concealed. "Hakom?"

"Maun-de laik baga." The ones lost in the middle of the night. Sleepless moons spent at villages torn apart by red smoke and bullets. "Osir souda gonplei ogeda." 

The queen looks intrigued. "Kostia's ripa?"

Lexa tightens her grip on the prince's throat, forearm trembling. "Ai ban em au."

Nia smiles, letting her hands twist together. "Yu gaf heda." A flick of her wrist has her own warriors are carrying the man from the room, taking him from Lexa with a tense nod from the heda.

They leave the Ice nation without bloodshed and Lexa is tense muscles and dust in her pocket. 

Anya looks at her before they enter Polis days later. _"Leksa."_

"Kostia ripa wan op." She pauses jaws tight and eyes dark with treacherous thoughts. "Azplana wan op pas maun-de slip daun." Her tone is murderous and her face as smooth as stone, she has yet to touch Valerian since Costia's death, her emotions are hidden easily behind this new mask.

* * *

Two summers pass and she is no closer to taking down the mountain but finally all the clans are in the coalition and trade is happening, the villages every where are flourishing but the reapers attack constantly. Valerian lays basking in the sun, Bayanai at her side as Lexa and Anya fight with sword, practice that is a relief for both of them when something streaks across the sky in a blaze of smoke fire and a red cloth and gleaming metal. Lexa stills, watching it disappear into the trees. "Onya, dig chit au don."

Anya's eyes are flickering the smoke trail, calculating the distance before she nods. "Sha heda." Anya leaves with a quick clasp to Lexa's should and a clicking tongue to her horse, Bayanai on her hooves. Valerian sits by her side and they stare at the fire streaked in the sky. Smoke the only evidence left of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keryon - soul/daemon  
> Pakstoka - wolf  
> Leksa, gon houm - Lexa go home.  
> Ai ge fisa nontu - I get healer, father.  
> Sha - Yes.  
> Sekon - Second.  
> Daun - Down.  
> Ge fisa, Val - Get healer Val.  
> Houmon-spouse/husband/wife  
> nomon bro-mothers brother  
> Yu nomon gonplei ste odon-Your mothers fight is over.  
> No - No  
> Em gonplei yuj - She fought well.  
> Ste yuj - Stay strong.  
> Nomon gonplei ste odon nontu - Mothers fight is over.  
> Dish ste (name) - This is(name).  
> Heya, ai gaf yu don houm hir - I wish/hope you find home here.  
> Disha nou ai houm - This isn't my home.  
> Wheron ste - Where is  
> Kom nomon bro - With uncle.  
> Em ste foto - It is bad.  
> Ge Valaryan nau. - Get Valerian now.  
> Osir laik nou foto - We are not bad.  
> yu gonplei ste foto - You fight horribly.  
> Teik osir gau - Let us go.  
> Ai ken taut yu kom ge dina - I cn teach you to get food.  
> Ai ken ge dina ona ai aun - I cna get food on my own.  
> Nou swima - Not fish.  
> Em nou ste foto - You are not bad.  
> Yu fir raun swima - You scare away the fish.  
> Onya ste sekon - Anya is a second.  
> Branwoda sekon - Foolish second.  
> Ai nou branwoda sekon. Leksa es branwoda ba nou sekon. Nou yit. Em ste strik. - I am not a foolish second. Lexa is foolish, but not a second. Not yet. She is too small.  
> Nou laik strik - I am not too small.  
> Gonplei ai Leksa - Fight me Lexa.  
> Shof up Kostia - Shut up Costia.  
> Leksa gaf in gonplei - Lexa wants to fight.  
> Fir raun Onya? - Scared Anya?  
> Em pleni - Enough
> 
>  
> 
> Skrish - Shit  
> Komba raun - Come/approach)  
> Yu don os, strik gona. - You did well little warrior.  
> Kostia yu smuch Leksa op? - Costia you kiss Lexa?  
> Shof up joka - Shut up fucker.  
> Nou krei strik nau - Not so little now.
> 
>  
> 
> Seifas em - Trap them.
> 
>  
> 
> Fis - First  
> Fleimkepa - Flamekeeper  
> Leksa, ai laik titus. Yu don heda keron - Lexa I am titus. You have a Commanders spirit.
> 
>    
> En Kostia? - And Costia?  
> Em set raun. - She stays.  
> No em kom op. - No she comes.  
> Yu gaf in Kostia sin in yu wan op - You want Costia to watch you die?  
> Ai nou gon wan op - I am not going to die.  
> Valaryan kom op. Chil au. - Valerian will come. Stay calm.
> 
>    
> Sad op sis. - Pick out six.  
> Win au. - Win  
> Ai nou wan op. - I can't die.\  
> Yu bilaik feisripa. Bilaik Valaryan - You like/ are tiger. Like Valerian.  
> Komba hir ai Leksa - Come back to me Lexa.  
> Sha Kostia. Otaim. - Yes Costia. Always.  
> Hashta heda gonplei, bilaik won hedon noumon: jos won ste raun. - In Commander combat there is but one rule: only one may remain.  
> Wan emo op - Kill them.  
> Yu souda - You must.  
> Emo nou gafen wamplei - They do not derseve/need death.  
> Emo frag yu op kom heda - The would kill you to be come heda.  
> Ba din ai no frag em op - But I will not kill them.  
> Der nou badan gafen wamplei - There does not need to be death.  
> Hakom set bilaik? - Why is that?  
> Ai laik heda en ai hedon em - I am the COmmander and I order it.  
> Ai nomon frag yu op. - My mother will kill you.  
> Teik em trana. Ai laik heda, ai noy wan op - Let ehr try. I am the COmmadner, I do not die.  
> Won fali treot. - One final test.
> 
> Ha? - How?  
> Emo don kyon em tu natshana - They kept her for two moons.  
> Chon? Hakom yu no tel ai op? - Who? Why didnt you tell me?"  
> Don wor mou meija - The war was more important.  
> Chon? - Who  
> Azgeda - Ice nation.  
> Ai beda don kamp raun COstia. - I should have stayed with Costia.  
> Foutaim ste foutaim - The past is the past.  
> Costia gaf in ogonzaun - COstia wanted peace.  
> Ai gafen frag emo op - I want to kill them.  
> Ai get in. - I know.  
> Kostia stedaun. - Kostia's dead.  
> Roan wan op Kostia - Roan killed Costia.  
> Yu don glong op kongeda. - You will join the coaliton.  
> Hakom? - Why?  
> Maun-de laik baga. OSia sounda gonplei ogeda - The mountain's the enemy. We must fight together.  
> Kostia's ripa - Costia's murderer?  
> Ai ban em au- I banish him.  
> Yu gaf heda. - As you wish COmmander.  
> Kostia ripa wan op. Azplana wan op pas maun-de slip daun. - Costia's killer will die. The queen will die after the mountain falls.
> 
> Onya, dig chit au don. - Anya, find out what that was.  
> Sha heda. - Yes Commander.
> 
> KERYONS  
> Lexa- Valerian- wolf mostly then tiger  
> Anya- Bayanai- black wolf  
> Lexa's nontu- marten  
> Costia- Ossian- mountin beaver  
> Lexa's nomon- Wolf  
> Lexa's nomon bro- wolf  
> Indra- wolverine  
> Gustus- antelope  
> Roan-Polar bear  
> Queen Nia-weasel white  
> Titus-spider


End file.
